Evangelion: Regenesis

by Fyrstorm

Third Impact may have left its scars, but it's far from the end. Four years later, and the remnants of Nerv are still locked in battle with Seele, in hopes that the world can be saved. Besieged by nightmares, monstrosities, and her own confusing emotions, Asuka Langley Shikinami must try her best to survive, and bring about a bright future. An alternate take on Evangelion 3.0.

4. Gottestoeter

Evangelion: Regenesis

Chapter Four – Gottestoeter

.

Asuka had gone to sleep early.

Mari wasn't surprised—based on what she'd seen, the Second Child had gone through quite a lot during the last day; her early release from the ward, the meeting with Misato, and what had seemed like some nasty residual effects from the Anti-AT Field, which had all culminated in her rather abrupt breakdown. After all that, it was no wonder that the European girl needed some reprieve from the rest of the world.

Mari, on the other hand, had decided to stay up just a little bit later.

"Well, this has been a… day," the girl mused to herself, as she reclined back on the bed. "Could have gone a lot better, too. Less… messed up."

Her gaze slid to the side, tracking across the ceiling and down the wall to the other bed in the room. She'd taken her glasses off already, so everything beyond her nose had turned into an indistinct blur, but the paler shades of Asuka's hair were apparent enough for her to focus on.

"…Oh, Princess," Mari sighed, voice tinged with pity. "What am I to do with you?"

That was the problem, of course; Mari didn't know what she should do. This hadn't been a normal reaction for Asuka—it'd been bad. As much as Mari wanted to, she couldn't just grab the girl and hold her until she got better. The world didn't work like that.

Why is caring about people so… hard? The brunette wondered. Why is it so hard when I care about her?

Asuka was… well, if Mari really wanted to be honest, she'd become a fixation for the Fourth Child. It had all started when she'd realised that she really cared about the girl—not just as a fellow Eva pilot, but emotionally as well. It may not have sounded like such a big deal for a normal person… but Mari wasn't normal. She liked people, sure—people were wonderful—but at the end of the day, most of them just didn't matter to her.

Except for Asuka. Asuka mattered.

Realising that had felt weird, and… kinda nice as well. To find someone who she could worry about, who she wanted to keep safe and happy, who she… well, valued.

Of course she'd choose the most damaged person in the whole damned fleet.

Mari rolled over onto her back again and stared up at the ceiling, as she laid her hands on her belly. Sleep's inexorable tug had been pulling at her for a while now, and Mari had finally started to give in.

"It's okay," she muttered to herself, not really expecting an answer. "It's okay. We'll just figure it out in the morning… won't we, Princess?"

Slowly, the girl's eyes slipped closed. She couldn't do anything else for now—just sleep.

"It'll all be better… then…"

.

[-]

.

When Mari woke up, one of the first things she'd noticed had been that Asuka was still asleep—still a mostly motionless lump under the covers.

No nightmares then, she thought. That's a relief. Of course, the blonde could have been too drained from yesterday to dream—but either way, Mari figured that was a good thing for Asuka. Be it good dreams or no dreams at all, the Second Child deserved some rest, even if it was merely nothingness.

Mari climbed out of bed—softly, so she didn't disturb her roommate too much—and walked over to her dresser. The girl pulled open the drawers one by one, and quickly ran by her possibilities of what she'd wear. Then again, it wasn't like there were many options.

Mmm… think I'll go with something a bit nicer, she decided. With that, Mari reached in, and pulled out her selection. The school uniform the girl had worn when she'd still lived in Great Britain was an old favourite of hers, not to mention the nicest thing she had to wear—and it still fit her pretty well.

Suppose that's one advantage of being an early bloomer, Mari noted to herself, as she pulled the blouse on. If you like what you wore a while ago, it'll probably match you for a while… The girl paused, fingers on the second to last button. Recently, it'd started to get a bit too tight when she'd passed that point. Just because she was mostly matured didn't mean she'd stopped, after all.

Mari sighed, and left the button open. It wasn't like she really cared either way.

…Even if you have to make a few compromises.

With the same nonchalance, Mari finished donning the rest of her uniform—a plaid skirt, green tie, and her usual dark red stockings, all of which fit far better than the blouse—and took a breath. The Fourth Child shot one last look over at Asuka's bed, just in case the other girl had started to wake up. She hadn't.

"See you in a bit, Princess," the brunette whispered in farewell, before she finally left the room.

.

As the door slid shut behind her, Mari stretched her arms back and yawned. Staying up that late had evidently not been a good idea, especially with how hectic her guard schedule had been recently.

"…Oh well," the Fourth Child sighed. "Time for breakfast." With one last roll of the shoulders, Mari set off down the hall, on her three minute journey to the Rainbow's galley.

As she strolled along, the girl let her thoughts wander. Granted, there wasn't much she had to think about, but Mari wasn't going to let a little thing like that stop her.

"Okay, but let's try to keep it on something else," she muttered under her breath. After all, there's more to worry about than just Asuka.

Such as the Angels. It'd been four years since the last one, and while Mari would have been more than happy to never see another damned Angel for the rest of her life, the mystery of just what had happened to them continued to pique her interest. Who knew, maybe Third Impact had put the rest of them into hibernation or something.

That'd be something, Mari thought as she passed into the galley, and headed towards the line. Bunch a' sleeping Angels, put back to bed because Unit 01 turned into a god. Hiding at the bottom of the ocean, or deep underground—somewhere out of the way. Heck, it'd just be a matter of finding them, and we could kill the monsters before they even woke up. Avert another Impact completely.

"The usual, Ms. Illustrious?" The galley worker asked, his voice inadvertently snapping Mari out of her internal monologue. The Fourth Child almost immediately perked up, and focused on the young man behind the counter.

"Oh, yes please!" she replied affably. The galley worker nodded, and turned away to fetch her meal. A nice kid, she supposed, even if she didn't remember his name, or much of anything else about him. Just a friendly acquaintance.

"Here you go, miss," the young man said, as he placed a bag, a small container, and a cup of tea on her tray. Mari thanked him, and moved on to the exit point.

Fortunately, there was an empty table available for her to take. Satisfied, Mari set her tray down on one side, and slid in.

Now… time to eat, she thought as she pulled open the bag. The girl just needed a moment to check its contents, and make sure they were what she'd ordered, before she grabbed them out and flattened the bag into a rudimentary plate for them.

A few seconds later, and Mari had started to sink her teeth into the meal. The girl didn't really bother with manners—she'd chosen an empty table for a reason, after all—but even then, she wasn't a slob, just… unconcerned. It didn't matter if she put her elbows on the table, or ate with her fingers, or whatever.

Although… it really was a pity that she hadn't been able to have a proper breakfast with Asuka again. With the attack of the NS units, it'd been more than a week since she'd tried eating with someone else.

…Damn.

"Mari?" someone asked. The Fourth Child glanced over her shoulder, where a purple-haired woman in a turtleneck stood, with a tray in her hands.

"…Yeah?" she replied to Misato.

"Can I take a seat here?"

"Sure, go ahead." The brunette nodded to the other, empty side of the table. "Still got plenty of space left." The older woman exhaled, and walked around to the open bench.

"Thanks," Misato replied, as she started to set out her own meal. Mari shrugged, and returned her focus to the last remaining pieces of her own breakfast.

Despite their initial clashes, over the years Misato Katsuragi had grown quite a bit in Mari's view of her. She was clever, charismatic, and—while not quite a 'mom' figure—essentially the team's well-meaning, alcoholic aunt/big sister with too much shit heaped on her. That, and she didn't have too many inhibitions, just like her. So Mari was more than fine letting the woman sit together with her.

Of course, Misato being nearby also gave her a chance to find some rather important answers…

Mari swallowed the last bite of her breakfast pastry, and licked her lips.

.

"So, Colonel," she began. "Do you want to know what happened with Asuka yesterday?"

The woman paused, and put down her drink.

"…What happened?"

"I'll tell you. She burst into our room, pretty much broke down right in front of me, and started crying into her pillow," Mari said, her voice getting harder and more aggressive with each event on the list. "And since she'd supposedly just been at a meeting with you, I think I'm justified to ask you what the hell got that sort of reaction out of her."

Misato flinched back involuntarily, before she reasserted herself, and leaned back in.

"You're… serious?" She whispered.

"Yes, I am," Mari hissed. "Full-blown, curled-up, inconsolable sobbing. Clearly something fucked up there, and I… I…"

"…I don't know what to do," the girl finished. Almost as quickly as it had arrived, Mari's aggression had fizzled away into simple distress. "I don't know what to do, and I spent an hour trying to think of some way to help, but I just… I need to know… what happened then? Just… anything?"

As the words sank in, Misato sighed, and slumped back.

"I… I don't know what happened—I was just bringing up the new Eva unit that was going to be coming over soon, and she… got aggressive and stormed out."

"…Wait, what?"

"Nerv First Branch has recently finished their work on Unit 07—they even picked out a pilot for us," Misato answered. "I was hoping that I could have it fill Asuka's role while she finished… recovering…" Slowly, awareness seemed to dawn on her.

"And… I was going to move her into backup," the woman finished. "That must have been it."

New Eva. Asuka's role. Backup.

"…Did she say anything?" the brunette asked. She was pretty sure she'd figured it out.

"'How dare you', I think."

Mari leaned back, and slouched her shoulders.

"…Misato," she muttered. "Picture this."

"Imagine you're completely and utterly amazing—the best at your job, second to nobody. And it's because you've made it your life. Because you've entirely devoted yourself to it."

"But you get hurt. Over, and over, and over. And then you get really hurt. And when you start to get better, your boss tells you 'hey, because you've been taking a beating, we're going to move you into a secondary role. Oh, don't worry- we've got someone who can take over for you for a while'." Mari looked back down, and focused on the woman.

"That's Asuka, Misato. Look, I can't pretend I've got front row seats to whatever's been going on in her head recently, but I know how I'd feel in that situation."

"Replaced," Misato finished. "…Dammit. Of course." The woman pressed a hand to her head, and sighed. "Nerv finally gets a new Eva Unit operational, and in exchange I may have ended up costing us our ace pilot. Brilliant."

Mari exhaled.

"Look. I still don't know what to do here," the girl said. "I don't even know if I can do anything, because the issue's partly your work; you have to do something."

"Like what?" Misato hissed back. "I'm not exactly going to rescind my order, Mari—Asuka shouldn't be on the front lines, not in her state."

"Then… I don't know, change the phrasing or something? You said backup—you said reserves. Call it… something else!"

The older woman brought her reply to a halt, and blinked at the comment.

.

"…Call it… something else?" she repeated. "Call it something else. Huh. That… actually might work." Now Mari paused.

"Wait, really? I was just making stuff up there."

"Yes, really. This whole thing's been such a mess recently that it could easily make sense that I just messed up what I was saying. I could say that I meant to assign her to support instead."

The girl blinked again. She'd gotten the opportunity before to listen to some of Misato's more eccentric plans, but seeing one take shape in front of her was a whole different matter.

"Oh, of course!" she joined in enthusiastically. "And a support role would keep her out of melee, and further away from danger, but wouldn't make it seem like you were straight up pulling her away from it!"

Misato nodded.

"Hm. Mari?"

"Yeah?"

"I'll need your help as well," the woman said. "Given how my last meeting with her went, I think it'd be better if you were the one to notify Asuka of the 'mistake', rather than me."

"Mhm." The Fourth Child nodded in agreement. That made sense; Asuka would probably tolerate Mari trying to relay an apology than Misato doing it in person.

"And, I'll need you to do one more thing for me."

"Yeah? Wossat?"

The colonel took a breath.

"I'd like for you to be in charge of the Fifth Child's training," she said. "I'd originally asked Asuka if she could do that, and that… probably exacerbated her idea that I was replacing her."

Training? Mari thought. Me? Really? It wasn't exactly an idea Mari herself would have gone with—all her training had basically consisted of learning on the job for four years, and a glorified cheat sheet of Eva's special abilities. Still… she supposed it could work.

Mari nodded.

"Sure thing."

"So, it's a plan then?" the woman asked. Mari grinned, and offered her hand.

"It's a plan."

Their hands shook.

.

[-]

.

"…Sun is shining in the sky, there ain't a cloud in sight. It's stopped rainin', everybody's in a play—and don't you know, it's a beautiful new day… hey, hey…"

Mari sang to herself, as Evangelion Unit 08 stomped out onto the sandy red beach. She'd been deployed a good hundred kilometres north of the Maritime Preservation Zone—near where First Branch was due to drop off their new Eva Unit. She and hachigouki, however, were here for two reasons; to guard against any NS activity in the area, and to get a start on training the new pilot—since, unlike with the Third Child and herself, Nerv actually had a chance this time to help the Fifth learn what to do with their Evangelion before they ended up being thrown at a rampaging Angel.

Thankfully, things had started to clear up over the two days after her arrangement with Misato. Repairs on the fleet had been coming along, the sky had been clear of Seele units, and some modicum of peace had been re-established. Asuka had even started to come out of her room again. Granted, it was mainly just to grab food, use the bathroom, or check up on Unit 02, but… honestly, that was good enough for Mari.

Anyways…

A muffled grunt came from the blue Evangelion, before it tossed the bulky cases it held under its arms into the dirt. The rectangular slabs were simply portable versions of the Rainbow's equipment racks—her power feed had been taken care of already, courtesy of the Nerv VTOLs and a nearby electrical station. Freed of the encumberment, Unit 08 and Mari gave their shoulders an exaggerated roll, and settled into a more relaxed posture.

"…Mr. Blue Sky is living here today," the girl finished, as she turned towards the sea.

It shouldn't be too much longer, she thought.

.

…And there it was. Off in the distance, a speck of black hung in the middle of the sky above the ocean—one of Nerv's transport planes. Slowly, the speck grew closer and closer, and Mari could make out details. It was an American style long-distance plane, for one; instead of being held face-down in a sealed pod, the Eva would be carried at an upright angle underneath the craft, and clamped onto a cross-shaped structure. While it wasn't as useful for combat, the design meant that a more precise landing was possible. For another—compared to the warm oranges and reds of Unit 02, the pitch black of Unit 03, the mixed silver and green of Unit 05, or the flashy purple of Unit 01- the Eva was pretty clearly distinct from all the others she'd seen before.

Good thing, too. It'd never do to mix up Evas, Mari thought, as the plane dropped into what seemed like a sort of landing pattern. The engines on the aircraft's wings unlocked, and swivelled down to provide vertical thrust, while its tail engines continued to propel it towards the shore.

The transport cross detached, and dropped into the shallows. A plume of reddish water and sand sprayed up, as the bottom of the crucifix anchored itself in the earth.

Mari promptly started over towards the Eva, intent on getting a closer look.

.

Instantly, Mari could recognise Unit 07 as a production model, rather than some sort of special variant—the Eva's shoulder pylons, chestplate, and general build were unmistakable in that regard. Beyond that, however…

The armour on Unit 07's main body and legs was mostly a very glossy black, which looked almost like it had been oiled at first glance. The flexible coating across its joints and arms was also black, but it was flat as opposed to the glossy sheen of the armour. Other bits of colour were also present; its lower legs and hands were grey instead of black, and sections of amber and white armour ran across its body—on the Eva's biceps, midsection, knees, pelvis, front and top of each shoulder wing, as well as the sides of its head. Really, it was kind of like how Unit 00 had looked, if one had swapped most of the orange for black, and most of the white for orange instead.

Unit 07's helmet was also interesting. The saurian motif used by the earlier American units was distinctly present, but a radome lens was mounted on its crown, and a pair of sensor fins—like Unit 08's—stuck up from the sides of its head. Altogether, Mari thought it looked rather like a dog, or maybe a jackal.

As the Fourth Child examined it, a low hum started in the Evangelion's chest, and rose in volume. Two points of light flickered in its eye sockets, before they solidified into a pair of white slits. The Brit smiled.

"Looks like someone's up and ready to go," she noted aloud, and sent a mental command to her unit's communications equipment. As the contact window popped open, Unit 08 stepped forwards, and playfully flicked the black Eva on its faceplate. "Oi, newbie; rise and shine!"

Unit 07's eyes flickered for a second, before the Eva looked up with what could only be indignation.

"Hey, what was that for?" a masculine voice replied in Japanese. Mari blinked in curiosity.

A boy? She wondered. Fortunately, the Fourth Child didn't have to wait long for the audio link to gain its visual component as well, and give Mari her first glimpse of the new pilot.

The boy was clearly Japanese, and a fairly athletic youth as well; thanks to the skin-tight nature of the plugsuits, Mari had a nice view of his upper body to confirm that. His hair was dark and crew-cut, and his eyes were brown. All in all… not too shabby, she supposed.

"Nothin'," Mari replied with a smirk. "Just saying hello to the newest member of the Eva corps." The other pilot huffed, and his brow furrowed.

"Well, don't get too excited. I ain't here 'cause I wanna have fun, Ms. Smiles," he said back. "The fellows back at First Branch just thought I had the right ability and threw me in this thing. Believe me; I wasn't exactly jumpin' for joy when they told me about it."

Mari gave a mock pout in response.

"Well if you're gonna be a downer about it…"

"Hey, I just said I wasn't the biggest fan of piloting, not that I wasn't gonna do it," the Fifth Child replied, rising to Mari's bait. "…'sides, I've seen what these things can do. An Eva put my little sis in the hospital, back before Third Impact."

Mari's smirked disappeared, and a look of intrigue replaced it. That was… interesting. And more than that, it was a little familiar.

Someone put in the hospital because of Eva… I could swear I've seen that somewhere in Nerv's files…

"…Say, newbie," Mari asked. "What's your name? I can't just refer to you as the Fifth Child."

"Suzuhara," he replied. "Toji Suzuhara."

"Well then, Toji Suzuhara," the bespectacled girl said back to him. "I'm Mari. Fourth Child Mari Illustrious Makinami, at your service!"

"…Illustrious?"

"Illustrious," Mari confirmed, as she sent Unit 08 stepping around the transport cross, and closed the video window. "Now if you'll hold your questions for a bit, I'll just help you down from this thing, and we can get started!"

Her Eva reached behind it, and pulled on a lever. With a clank and a hiss of steam, the clamp holding Unit 07's left wrist to the cross flipped open, and let the Eva's arm jolt forwards. Toji made a surprised noise, as Mari moved around to the other arm of the cross. Unit 08 gave the second lever a tug, and dropped into a squat to reach the third one, which held both of the black Eva's ankles in place. The clamps fell open just as smoothly as the first two had, leaving only the shoulder locks still closed.

"Alright, one set left," Mari alerted her new teammate. "Quick note, by the way; do try not to fall on your face. Standing up's kind of a pain, given how the Entry Plug's oriented."

"Try not to fall on my—" Toji's words were cut off by Mari flipping the final switch. The massive locks wrapping above and below Unit 07's shoulders abruptly disengaged, dropping the Eva feet-first into the shallow waters. The black-armoured cyborg immediately stumbled, and staggered forwards with a distinctive lack of balance. However, part of its awkwardness in moving was quickly made clear—that being the rather heavy-looking experimental engine mounted on the small of its back.

Mari ducked under the arm of the transport cross, and grabbed the other Eva by its shoulder pylon—just in time before it would have fallen over.

"Oh, relax," the Fourth Child said nonchalantly, as she helped the boy get Unit 07 balanced again. "The Evas run on a neural link; just think your commands, and it'll obey them, okay?"

Slowly, Unit 07 turned its reptilian head over towards her, and managed a little nod.

"Excellent. Now tell me, Mr. Toji Suzuhara, just how much experience do you have with the Evangelions?"

"Um…" the Fifth Child muttered. "…Well, ya see, my pal Shinji, he was the pilot for one a' these things, and my other pal and I had snuck out of the shelters… right when one a' those Angels was attacking. Wanted to get a better look at it, ya know." The boy took an audible breath, and continued. "Anyways, Shinji ends up kinda getting his ass kicked by the thing, and crashes down near where we're at. He couldn't fight with us so close by—not without squishin' us—so we ended up havin' ta get in with him. It was… pretty crazy."

"That's most 'f it, really. Got a bit of a primer before they got me into this thing; 'think 'bout doing whatever you want it to do,' n' that sorta stuff. It's… a… not much."

"Hm." Mari leaned back in her seat, and let her Eva release its grip on Unit 07's shoulder. "Well, I guess that's better than nothing." With that, the girl started off towards the shore, red water splashing around Unit 08's feet. "Come along, then."

"Wait, what? But how?"

"Walk," Mari answered. "There's no way I'm gonna turn you into an ace like Princess and I, but I can at least help you figure out the basics. Now, come on."

As the slate blue Eva stomped back onto dry land, Mari looked over at the side of the Plug, checking Unit 08's peripheral vision for the Fifth Child's progress. Slowly, the glossy black Eva took a lurching step forwards, and another, and another. The movements themselves were halting, and more than a little shaky—she wouldn't be surprised if the new kid managed to trip himself up again. Unit 08 lurched to a stop.

"You're thinking of taking the individual steps, aren't you?" the girl asked, almost rhetorically.

"Huh? Well, yeah, but-"

"Stop it," Mari said. "When you're just walking about normally, do you think 'left foot here, right foot there—left foot here, right foot there'? No, of course you don't. So just walk. If you must think of something, think 'go over to Mari so she can teach you properly'. Got it?"

"I- hey!" Toji shouted back, audible annoyed by Mari's condescending—and completely intentional—attitude towards him. The girl smirked, and looked over her Eva's shoulder in time to see Unit 07 stomp over through the shallows, its shoulders hunched and its neck jutting out aggressively. "What the hell's dat supposed to mean?!"

Hm, she thought smugly. Looks like getting under his skin worked.

The sable-armoured unit lurched to a halt right in front of her, close enough that another step would've smashed the Evas' armoured foreheads together. Mari reactivated the video feed on her end, and allowed a self-satisfied smile to cross her face.

Misato wants training? I'll give her training—teach him how to fight right with an Eva. You don't need to fiddle around with joysticks and stuff—you just want to hurt your enemy enough.

"What does what mean?" the Fourth Child answered sweetly. Toji scowled further.

"Don't play dumb—you're talkin' to me like I'm some sorta idiot!" he shot back.

"Oh, have I?" Mari asked. "Well, that must be because that's the impression you've given me; a green-blooded idiot who can't even control something that responds to your thoughts. Really, one has to wonder why they even gave you the Eva in the first place, if all you've done is tag along with one of the real pilots."

Then Mari said something that went a little too far.

"I bet you haven't even grasped how much we have to sacrifice here in Nerv—"

A moment later, something slammed into the side of her Eva's face. Pain spiked in Mari's eye socket, eliciting a surprised yelp as Unit 08 was knocked flat on its ass in the sand.

"Shut up!" Unit 07 rose up above her, one arm extended into a clenched fist. "You don't get to talk about sacrifice like it's—"

Mari didn't let him finish. Girl and Eva practically launched themselves back up, and drove their fist into Unit 07's face before it could respond. The black Eva staggered back, only for Unit 08 to grab its pylon, and yank it forwards again—just in time to drive a knee into its armoured stomach. There was a gasp of pain from Unit 07's pilot, before the Eva grabbed onto the other side of Unit 08's face, and shoved it away.

Mari grunted, and yanked her control grips the other direction, bringing Unit 08 to a halt. The girl's lips drew back in a maniacal grin, as her Eva dropped into a brawler's stance. Unit 07 similarly tensed up, and planted its feet firmly in the sand.

"Now… now, that's more like it," the Fourth Child chuckled. "I bet you didn't even bother thinking there—you just wanted to beat my face into the dirt, didn't you?"

"And I still do, ya bitch!" Toji snapped, as the video feed from Unit 07's plug opened up as well. Mari's grin widened.

"Good."

Her Evangelion pushed off, and struck out with a right hook, only for Unit 07 to catch the blow with its left arm. The black Eva threw a counter-punch, the blue Eva threw one of its own, and both staggered back from each other.

"Now, now you get it… don't you, Suzuhara?" Mari asked, as her heart pounded in her chest. "Eva isn't separate—isn't just some machine. It's an extension of yourself."

"What… what the hell are you talking about?" Toji demanded back in between his own heavy breaths. Mari opened her mouth to answer—only for an alarm to go off inside Unit 08. A very familiar alarm. The girl's eyes widened, and refocused just as the alarm itself popped up in hologram form. It wasn't the warning for incoming Nemesis Series units, nor anything else that Nerv had encountered after Third Impact.

In fact, the last time she'd heard this alarm had been more than four years ago—just before the Tenth Angel had attacked.

ALERT: BLOOD PATTERN BLUE DETECTED

ELEVENTH ANGEL - IDENTIFIED

Mari's face froze, her mouth contorted into a sort of horrified smile as she stared at the two lines of text. It… it was another one. After all these years, another one had finally shown up.

And if it was anything like the last one…

.

A trickle of blood ran down the right side of Mari's face, pooling around her eye before continuing on. Not like it mattered. She couldn't even feel the right half of her head anymore—it was just a mess of static and pain, like her left arm.

Mari felt her fingers tremble—felt the Eva's fingers tremble—felt the boy, standing in the palm of her hand. So small. So fragile.

Off in the distance, she could see Unit 00. The Eva was… broken. Its arms had been vapourised, and the front face of its body was melted and burnt from the point-blank detonation of the N2 warhead. Towering above it; the Angel. The thing that refused to die.

The Angel's bony jaws unhinged, and swung open grotesquely. Before Mari's eyes, a set of gums and teeth—human teeth—extended out, and spread in turn. Something like a tube of flesh shoved its way out, and rose from the depths of the thing's throat like a snake.

The end split. And then it struck.

One instant, Unit 00 was standing there—the next, it was gone, and the hideously distended tube of flesh and teeth retracted back into the Angel's mouth. The undying monster hunched over, and colour rippled across its bare flesh.

"I-it's absorbing the Eva… even the p-pilot…" Mari murmured—half to the boy, and half to herself, to remind herself that this wasn't just some horrible nightmare.

Slowly, the sack of flesh that was the Tenth Angel's underbelly began to warp and bulge. It lengthened downwards, stretching into a trunk, and split into two smaller trunks. The massive pair of tentacles slid down, and collapsed in on themselves like a telescope.

Then the Tenth Angel stood up, supported by a pair of legs that were little more than stumps below the knee, and its grotesquely long—grotesquely human—arms swung down to its side. It was a mockery; a fusion of Angel, and Eva, and the girl who had been inside it.

"G-get out of here," Mari whispered.

"Get out, or you're going to die."

.

Mari reached up, and smacked herself in the side of the head. No time for living in the past, Mari, she thought to herself.

"Shut up, just shut up now," the Fourth Child ordered, as she called up another communications channel.

"Misato!" She called. "We've got a big problem here!"

"The Angel?" the woman answered back. "Our sensors just detected it as well; I'm having the Magi calculate its location as we speak."

"Excuse me, can someone tell me what da hell's happening?" Toji demanded. Mari's eyes flicked over to his window.

"You've seen Evangelions fight Angels before, right? Well, now you'll get to see it again—up close. We've got incoming." The boy paled a little at that.

"H-hang on, you mean…"

"Yep! Eleventh Angel; happening right fucking now," Mari replied, before she looked back again. "Misato?"

"Bad news, Mari. The Angel's several hundred kilometres southeast of us—but it's not coming this way. Currently, the Magi estimate that its current trajectory will lead it straight to the Maritime Preservation Zone. The fleet won't be able to intercept it before it makes landfall—but the Evangelions can. I know you don't have much in the way of weaponry with you, but…"

"But you want me and the new kid to hold it back until you and Princess can make it over there," Mari finished.

"If the MPZ falls, we'll have lost one of the very few remaining instances of the oceans' ecology, and one of the major facilities making progress in detoxifying them. It is vital that this be prevented."

Mari nodded.

"Roger that."

"And how about you… pilot Suzuhara?" The woman asked in turn. Mari heard Misato sigh. "…You went there with Shinji, didn't you? Before Third Impact?"

"…Yes, ma'am." Toji and Unit 07 nodded.

"Then you know what's at stake. Can we count on you? To protect it?"

Another nod from the Fifth Child. Mari started to smile again—but it was a confident sort of smirk.

"In that case; pilots Makinami and Suzuhara, you are hereby authorised to engage the Angel!" the woman announced to them. "Good luck."

Then the channel closed.

Unit 08's stance relaxed, and the Eva shifted to a more upright posture.

"Suzuhara?" the Fourth Child asked. "Give me your engine." Toji blinked.

"Huh? Why?"

"A couple reasons," Mari answered. "Number one; I'm currently running off an umbilical, and it won't stretch all the way to the MPZ, so I'm gonna need something a bit more mobile—and number two; while you're not half bad in a fight, I'm still a lot more experienced. Ergo, I'm gonna be fighting up close, and I'd rather do that with an experimental engine than an easily-severed umbilical cable."

"Besides, I'd rather not see you killed on your first Angel battle," she added, as Unit 08 stalked around towards the other Eva's back. "Now, engine please?"

Unit 07 tilted its head in confusion.

"…Hang on a second, weren't we just fighting? And now you're all buddy-buddy?"

Mari shrugged, and grabbed onto the engine casing by a handle mounted near the top of it.

"Eh, not exactly. That was a bit of a farce on my part," she said. "Now, engine? And you'll want to switch to power-saving mode."

There was a click, followed by a descending whine as the experimental engine unlocked from Unit 07's back. The Eva's eyes dimmed similarly, and its posture slackened. With practiced ease, Mari ejected the umbilical power cable from her own Eva, and swung the pack-shaped casing around to fill its place.

"A farce?"

"Mhm," Mari nodded, as the pack locked into place. Another hologram opened up in her view, letting her know that the Eva's software was updating to accommodate for the new hardware.

Lucifrence Engine? The girl thought, as the whine of the engine's reaction started up again. Hmm, interesting name.

"I didn't actually mean those things—well, I meant to piss you off by saying them, but it's not like I actually believed what I said. Hang on."

With that, Unit 08 grabbed the other Eva by the waist, and hoisted it up and over its shoulder—eliciting an indignant exclamation from Toji in the process.

"I—Hey!"

"Now, as to why I did that? Why I bothered pissing you off, and tried to get you to fight me? Well, it was kinda the fastest way I could get subconscious action out of you; it's a lot easier to pilot Eva if you're only actively thinking about half the stuff you have to do."

As the girl talked, Unit 08 strolled over towards where the weapons cases had been, and kneeled down to pick them up in its other hand. While definitely awkward, Mari had more than enough experience with the containers, and managed to pick them up—with a little trouble.

"Alright then, ready to go," Mari said, before sparing a final glance at the video screen. "Oh, and Toji? One last thing."

"…yeah?"

Mari grinned, as her Eva planted one foot back, gathering up its energy.

"Welcome to the team."

With that, Unit 08 pushed off, and broke into a run.

.

[-]

.

Jesus, Misato's right, Mari thought. Even though I'm hauling more than my own weight in baggage, this baby can move. Hell, if I wasn't carrying all this stuff, I wouldn't be surprised if I could go supersonic!

Eva Unit 08's feet pounded craters into the red soil, as it raced across the landscape like a bullet train on legs. The scenery passed her in a blur; not even the Eva's dramatically enhanced senses could get a clear view of her surroundings. Looked like she and Toji could reach the MPZ with time to spare.

And speaking of Toji…

"Hey, number five? You still there?" Mari asked, trying to keep her sentences short so she could breathe.

"Yeah?" Toji replied. "What's the problem?"

"This… the engine. Lucifrence Engine. You know how it works?" The fact had just occurred to Mari that… well, that her Eva was kinda wearing an experimental power source which she knew next to nothing about. Or rather, it had just now sunk in. Mari was… kinda curious.

"Um… not really," the Fifth Child answered. "They didn't exactly gimme a lecture on dis thing, you know? All I know is dat it's kind of a… 'Better version of Unit 04's', or something."

"Unit 04?" Mari repeated. "Didn't that one kind of explode?"

"…maybe?"

Mari inhaled.

"…well then," she muttered under her breath. "In that case, I'd… better hope they fixed that issue."

With that, Mari turned her attention forwards and outwards again. They were getting closer—she could see the shift in the geography as Unit 08 sprinted out of the forest and onto the beach, several trees being torn up behind her from air displacement. Further along the coast, Mari was able to just make out the white, angular shape of part of the Maritime Preservation Zone behind the bend, before her Eva shot forwards again.

About half a minute later, Eva Unit 08 finally skidded to a halt, a little ways outside the facility's premises. A bulky substation had been set up, with two sets of cables leading off of it—one heading the Zone itself, and one attached to the signature Evangelion Umbilical Plug. After Third Impact, the power port had been one of the modifications made to the Maritime Preservation Zone, in case the facility came under attack and needed Evangelion support. Now, it seemed it would finally see some use.

"Okay, Suzuhara," Mari announced, as she bent over to set the jet black Evangelion on its feet again. "Here's the plan. Power up Unit 07 to operational standards, go grab the umbilical, and plug yourself in. After that, come back here and I'll get you a weapon. Okay?"

Mari stood, just in time to see Unit 07's eyes and shoulder logos light up.

"Yeah, alright," the Fifth Child replied. The black and amber Eva nodded its head in confirmation, and stomped off to the power port. With that taken care of, Mari turned to her other task.

The storage cases landed on the pinkish sand with a muffled thump—shortly followed by Mari's slate blue Evangelion stepping on their 'release' switches. A number of sections on the cases' fronts split down the middle and flew out to the sides, revealing the two weapons stored inside them. One of them was a standard Type MM-99 assault rifle—also known to her by the moniker of 'Pallet Rifle', a corrupted reference to its use of caseless 'pellets' for ammunition. Nothing special there, but the gun was as useful as ever. The other weapon, however… well, Mari definitely wanted to use that.

The 'Heat Lance', as it was known, had been one of a small number of experimental Evangelion-use weapons constructed after Third Impact, and was one of the even smaller number that saw regular use. The designation of 'lance' was a bit of a misnomer though, as the polearm more resembled a boar spear with a broad, spade-shaped head. There had been two things that had made the heat lance very useful to Mari and Unit 08. First off, its shaft was segmented and held several retracting joints internally. This prevented it from snapping when hit from the side, and also let the spear fold over itself several times, allowing it to be stored in the standard weapons cases that would have been too short to fit a more standard polearm. Second was its name—heat. The head of the heat lance held an extremely exothermic metal within the blade, which was hooked up to a nuclear decay battery. When activated, this had the unique property of causing the spearhead to get hot. Hot enough to make the tungsten carbide blade glow like a volcano, not to mention melt through most forms of armour.

Needless to say, having a tool that could both stand up to her rough-housing and dish out an impressive amount of hurt at the same time made Mari very happy. The girl reached down, and pulled out the folded weapon from its case. A snap of her Eva's wrist, and the heat lance uncoiled into its usable state.

"Sweet," Mari grinned, as the decay battery heated the blade to a dull red glow. Now ready, the girl turned and looked over her shoulder towards her fellow pilot. Unit 07 was already making its way back over, the umbilical power cable trailing from its back.

"…okay, you have a spear?" She heard Toji exclaim incredulously. "I… how?"

"Trade secret," Mari said, grinning. "There's a gun in the other case for you, by the way."

Unit 07 narrowed its eyes.

"A gun? Ya know I don't have any experience with shootin' things, right?"

Mari opened her mouth to reply, before another alarm went off. The girl cut herself off mid-sentence, and focused on the new message. It was here.

"Shit," Mari cursed, and levelled Unit 08's lance at the open ocean. "No time, just pick up the gun—it's not that hard to use, and the Eva will compensate. Just hurry!"

As the black Evangelion obeyed her orders, Mari looked out at the water. A ways away, part of the ocean swelled up—a clear sign of something big moving just under its surface. The roiling bulge of reddish water began to close in, as the Angel began its final approach.

And then, just under a kilometre from the shore, it breached.

At first, Mari wasn't sure what she saw. A massive, bullet-shaped cone of muscle and bone erupted out of the sea, glimmering white flesh sheathing the otherwise featureless surface of the Angel. It seemed to rise out of the water, as foam churned around its base.

That was when what Mari had thought to be the Angel's body split horizontally, and bellowed like a foghorn—revealing several rows of long, bony teeth, and something glinting at the back of its throat.

It wasn't a body. It was a head.

Water cascaded from the creature's flanks, as the Eleventh Angel rose from the ocean like a living tidal wave, revealing itself once and for all. It was a supple, streamlined creature, with black-membraned fins sprouting from its sides, and a very long tail. It was like some sort of primeval shark or ray, if there had ever been one that was more than twice the length of an aircraft carrier. A fleshy spade-shaped mantle protruded from under its jaws, and continued all the way back to its pectoral fins, until both transformed mid-leap—the fins lengthened into something between a flipper and a bat's wing, and the mantle split down the centre, and unfolded into a pair of curved appendages.

The Angel reared back on its tail for a moment, held aloft by the power of its AT Field. Its head tilted, and curved around—and turned towards the Evangelions. In response, Mari snarled, baring her teeth at the monstrous creature. For a second, the Eleventh Angel remained still, as if contemplating how to deal with the two cyborgs. Then its immense jaws swung open, and a yellow-orange glow lit up in its throat, forming a cross-shaped flash momentarily.

AT Field, maximum—!

Mari barely managed to send the mental command in time, before an explosion of light and heat slammed into her Eva's AT Field. The girl yelped in surprise, and frantically dug her feet in before the shockwave could bowl Unit 08 over into Unit 07.

"Alright, that's it!" Mari shouted, as she glared back up at the Eleventh Angel. The slate blue Eva took an aggressive step forwards, and tightened its grip on the heat lance. "Suzuhara, get your Field up and get ready! This son of a bitch is dead!"

"Okay!" Toji said, as he stepped up beside her. "What's the plan, four-eyes?"

Mari raised an eyebrow at the Fifth Child.

"…Four-eyes?" The brunette asked. Then she grinned. "Heh! I like it. Anyways—you, get in front of the facility, keep your AT Field up so shark-boy over there doesn't murder you or anyone else with another cross blast, and—most important of all—if that Angel's got me in a tricky spot; shoot it!"

"And, as for myself," she continued. "My job's simple—I'm gonna stab that thing in its goddamn face."

Unit 07 shrugged a little bit, and lifted its rifle.

"Well, I'm not gonna say that's the most complicated plan I've heard…" Toji admitted. "…but then again, I wasn't lookin' for one of those. Sounds good enough to me, lady."

"Then let's do it!" Mari announced. With the Lucifrence Engine rumbling away on her back, the Fourth Child levelled her spear, and charged the Angel.

Almost immediately, the Eleventh Angel responded in turn, and dove down again, throwing up a spray of pinkish-reddish water as it hurtled forwards. The slate blue Eva's legs tensed and sprang mid-run, which sent the polearm-wielding cyborg into an arcing leap at its colossal foe. Mari's AT Field concentrated, and struck—just as she swung down, and the Angel leapt up. The girl smashed through the remaining layers of the Eleventh's Field, and rammed her spear into the monster's snout. The superheated blade sank into the Angel's flesh like a hot knife through butter, before her downwards momentum tore a bloody red rent all the way along its upper jaw.

The Angel shrieked in pain, and thrashed from side to side, dislodging the Fourth Child before she could cut anymore of it. Before Mari could fully recover, one of its mantle-limbs struck her in the side—sending Unit 08 crashing into the seabed.

As she shakily pushed herself back up, Mari could feel the familiar aches and pains of neural feedback start to set in once more.

Don't care, she thought. Doesn't matter. Kill the Angel.

Unit 08 closed its hand around the shaft of the heat lance again, causing the decay battery to reconnect with the blade. Revitalised by its pilot's willpower, the Evangelion erupted out of the bay, and spun to face its opponent again. The Eleventh Angel, however, did not look back at her. It was far too busy with other matters—namely, the barrage of shells that Unit 07 was firing off at it. None of it was actually hurting, or even hitting the Angel—the other Eva was too far away to neutralize the phase space, so every single round just bounced off of the hexagonal planes of energy.

Even so, Mari appreciated a good distraction.

"Rrraah!" the girl yelled, as she struck out with a leaping thrust of the heat lance. With her own Field fully focused on bring down the enemy's, the Eleventh Angel's AT Field did nothing to stop the spear before it cut into the monster's flank. The Angel shrieked again, and rounded—but this time Mari was ready. The blue Eva sprang backwards, moving just out of the way of the incoming mantle-limb that slashed at her. Immediately, she pushed off again, and leapt up onto the Angel itself.

As Mari scrambled awkwardly up its side, the Angel bellowed, and shook itself in an attempt to throw her off again. In response, the girl plunged the heat lance into the Eleventh's flesh again, using it as an anchor against the monster's thrashing.

"Suzuhara! I've weakened its field—shoot the Angel again!" Mari yelled, as she tried to hold on. It didn't seem like the Angel could reach her here—she'd managed to grab onto a spot just behind its head and above the mantle, so it couldn't bite her, and it couldn't strike her.

Over by the shore, Mari could hear the mechanical snarl of Unit 07 opening fire with its pallet rifle once more. The Eleventh Angel hissed, and swung them both around towards the weapon—just as Mari heard the noise come to a distressingly sudden stop.

"Okay, that's not good," Toji announced. The black Evangelion glanced down at its rifle nervously. "I… I think this thing's empty."

Mari blinked.

"…It's—"

Something big and painfully strong collided with Mari's back, and slammed her into the Angel's side. Part of Mari could swear she heard something crack, before the blow drove the breath from her lungs, and sent feedback screaming along her nerves. The Angel's wing—for that was what it had been—wrapped its branching fins around Unit 08's body and flung it off, like someone pulling out a tick. The Eva was sent flying, and crash-landed in the shallows next to Unit 07, its spear embedding itself in the wall of the MPZ. This time, Mari definitely felt something break.

"I—M-Mari? Four-eyes? Hello?"

Mari let out a little wheezing noise in reply. Slowly, the girl forced herself back to sit upright—both in the entry plug, and as the Eva. The plug walls flickered worrisomely, and parts of it had even devolved into static.

En… gine? She thought fuzzily. A blurry hologram appeared before her, telling the Fourth Child that yes, the Eva's Lucifrence Engine was still intact.

No, wait. The hologram itself wasn't blurry—that was because her glasses had come off. As she took a constricted breath of LCL, the girl glanced down, and noticed the distinctly oval shape of the battered frames resting on her lap. One hand reached down, and lifted them up to her face. Thankfully, they hadn't suffered any extra cracking.

"…'m here," the girl mumbled into the microphone. "Not… dead yet. Hachigouki… damage report…"

A blueprint-style layout of her Eva popped into existence. There were a lot of red damage warnings—which did nothing to help Mari with narrowing down what parts were hurt the most. Unsatisfied, the girl lifted up one of Unit 08's hands into view, and promptly winced in pain; not only were there more than a couple bruises under the armour, the Eva's middle and index fingers had been snapped back out of their sockets, and pointed away at a ninety-degree angle. Fortunately, the left hand still seemed functional.

In the distance, she could hear a splash, as the Eleventh Angel dropped into the water once more.

"Eh, Mari? What should I… ya know… do?" Toji continued to ask her. "I… I can't exactly…"

"Unit 08, deploy pistols," Mari ordered. Immediately, the Evangelion's shoulder pylons swung open, their internal holsters clamped onto a pair of boxy handguns. The girl took another breath, and turned to look at her new teammate.

"…ditch the rifle, and take a gun," she told him. "I... I can't use both of 'em—my right hand's kinda broken. We'll hold it off."

For a moment, the black Eva hesitated. Mari didn't blame him—but she didn't exactly empathize with him either.

"Come on now," she mumbled, as her Eva pushed itself up onto its feet. Jerkily, Unit 08 reached up, and grabbed one of its pistols with its intact hand. "We've just gotta hold out a bit longer… just until the fleet arrives."

.

"…Alright," Toji sighed. Begrudgingly, Unit 07 tossed the empty pallet rifle aside, and grabbed Mari's second handgun. "But if this gets me killed, I'm gonna blame you."

"Hehe…" the brunette chuckled. "That's the spirit."

Off in the bay, the Eleventh Angel swam, travelling in a great big ellipse before it finally circled around towards them. Unit 08 propped its broken hand underneath its left one, and swung the gun up at the Angel. A moment later, Unit 07 did the same.

"I'll drop its Field…" Mari said. "…And you stay on defense. Okay?"

Unit 07 and its pilot both nodded.

"Mhm."

Water churned up in a spray of white and pink as the Angel closed in. In water this shallow, it couldn't submerge completely, so both Children had a clear view of its dorsal half. Closer and closer it came, until…

"Now!" Mari yelled, before she threw her AT Field against the Angel's. At that, the two opened fire, squeezing the triggers of their guns as fast as they could. The heavy linear rounds burst apart when they hit, each shot leaving a messy crater in the Angel's flesh as it continued to barrel forwards. Against another opponent, the shots might have been more effective—but the Eleventh Angel was simply too massive for the flechettes to inflict anything more than minor damage to it.

Inside her plug, Mari could hear someone screaming. She wasn't sure who; Suzuhara? Herself? Both of them? Any of those was just as likely as the others. And still, the Angel kept coming. Nine hundred metres of angry god-fish lunged out of the ocean at them. Nine hundred metres of angry god-fish slammed into the AT Field barrier that sprang up before it could hit. Nine hundred metres of angry god-fish reared back up, extended its wings, and slammed its face into the barrier a second time with a deafening bellow. With a musical chime, the octagonal plane of energy cracked down the middle, right where the Angel had hit it. Mari pulled the trigger again. The gun went click—her twenty rounds of ammo were gone.

The Eleventh Angel's mouth opened. At the back of its throat, Mari could see the thing's Core begin to glow. This close, another cross blast would tear straight through Unit 07's AT Field like it was rice paper. And then the Angel itself would tear through both Evangelions, and the facility behind them.

However, what came next was not the overwhelming pain of armour and flesh tearing apart.

At least, not for Mari.

.

A series of fireballs erupted against the Eleventh Angel's back, lacerating and burning its body with superheated shrapnel. The monster's head spasmed upwards in a pained shriek, involuntarily firing its cross blast far above its intended targets. As the Angel twisted around and snarled at whatever had hurt it, a new radio link popped up in the Evas' HUD.

"Sorry we're late," a very familiar voice announced to both of the pilots. "We overestimated how fast we could get the fleet to mobilize—but now, we're here to help. Good work, you two."

"Misato?" Mari asked.

"Major?" Toji asked. The leader of Nerv chuckled.

"Colonel, actually, Suzuhara," she corrected. "But yes."

Past the Angel, Mari could make out the sight of the Pacific Fleet closing in, their ships spread out and aiming all their weaponry at the giant monster. The Eleventh Angel hunched forwards, and let out a roar—before a pair of six metre long spikes sprouted from the cleft on the front of its head, turning the bellow into a high-pitched squeal.

"Oh, and one other thing you'll probably be pleased to know," Misato added. "We're not the only ones ready to fight this thing."

As another round of cannon fire and missiles was sent soaring towards the Angel, something else walked up to the front of the Over the Rainbow, and fired off a second burst of spikes alongside the ships. Something red. Mari blinked, and sat up a little more. Hurriedly, she zoomed in as close as her Eva could manage, in an attempt to confirm her hopes.

Evangelion Unit 02 stood on the carrier's deck, as tall and imposing as ever. The cyborg's red and white livery had been completely restored since its earlier battle with the Nemesis Series—and indeed, the only hint of the fight left over was the unfinished appearance of its mechanical left arm. In its hands, the Eva held a long, rectangular weapon with a t-shaped fin on either side of its muzzle—the EM-114 Super-Electromagnetic Crossbow.

Mari's face lit up.

"Princess!"

A third communications link opened, this one providing a video feed of the red Eva's strawberry blonde pilot. Momentarily, an involuntary smile twitched on the Second Child's lips at the sight of her teammate, still alive and kicking.

"Unit 08, Unit 07," Asuka said to them. "This is Evangelion Unit 02—ready to end this, once and for all!"

As the Angel closed in, Unit 02 turned its full attention to the foe. Asuka tossed the crossbow down behind her, and grabbed the handle of a second weapon that had been brought up on deck. The cyborg swung up—unsheathing a curved, Japanese-style longsword from its scabbard—and brought it down to a readied stance in one motion.

"Magoroku!" Asuka shouted, as she pulled a trigger on the blade's hilt. "Progressive edge, activate!"

Unit 02 bent its legs, and sprang into the air, umbilical cable trailing behind it. With a yell, the red Eva swooped down, and rammed the shrieking weapon into the open wound on the Eleventh Angel's head. The Angel shrieked and thrashed back, unintentionally bringing the Eva with it as it tried to retreat from the ship. However, as it swam back towards the facility, the cable ejected from Unit 02's back, preventing it from getting yanked off or dragging the boat with it.

"Mari! Can you still fight?!" The girl yelled to the brunette. Mari bared her teeth in a tired grin.

"I'm not dead just yet, Princess!"

"Then, if you don't mind—grab your lance, and help me kill this thing!"

"Gladly!" The Fourth Child replied, before she reached up, and pressed one of the buttons on her control stick. There was a momentary prick of pressure around her joints, before Mari could feel her heart speed up, and her pains fade.

Artificial adrenaline, she thought. So glad that these plugsuits have it.

Stumbling a little bit. Unit 08 spun around, and pried the heat lance from the facility's wall as precisely as she could.

"Hey, wait a second!" Toji interjected. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Wha—? Suzuhara?" Asuka blinked, and scowled a little. "What are you—oh, nevermind! Look, what weapons does Unit 07 have?"

"Um… I've got a pistol, and I think there's some knives in the shoulder fins."

"Good. In that case; stay back, shoot it or stab it if it gets close enough, and be ready to give me your power cable when I need it!"

Meanwhile, Mari ran off, heat lance held only in her left hand as Unit 08 charged through the water towards the Angel. She jumped, and swung her arm at its face in an attempt to anchor herself as well—but the Eleventh Angel jerked back, and Mari's strike hit its upper lip, just above its many rows of teeth.

Shit, she thought, as the primeval monstrosity snapped its jaws just below her Eva's feet.

"Mari, where's this thing's Core?" She heard Asuka ask.

"Inside… its mouth!" Mari grunted back, as she tried to sink the lance further into the Angel's flesh to get herself more leverage. Quickly, Eva Unit 02 darted forwards, and pulled its slate blue teammate up by its free arm onto the Angel's cranium.

"Dammit," the Second Child muttered, as she and Mari re-anchored themselves. "That's going to make killing it complicated, isn't it? Like I didn't have enough to worry about with this Angel."

"You or Misato have a plan, Princess?"

"Depends," the Colonel replied over the comms. "Are you actually going to listen to it?"

Mari shrugged.

"…Probably," she replied, with a little uncertainty in her voice.

"…Good enough," Misato conceded. "Now, let's see. The Core's in its mouth, so the only way we can get at it is either by going in after it—which is not happening—or by destroying its head."

Suddenly, the Eva's head swung over to Mari. "Mari, while you were fighting it- did the Angel ever regenerate?"

"Don't think so," the Fourth Child answered.

"Perfect," Asuka smirked. "Now, jump!"

With that, the red Evangelion yanked its sword out, and leapt off the Angel's head towards the facility. A moment later, Mari followed after her.

"Suzuhara!" Asuka shouted. "Umbilical!"

"Alright!" the boy replied. As the two swapped the cable between themselves, Mari just stumbled to a halt, and leaned up against the wall. Behind her, she could hear the sounds on gunfire resume—the fleet was bombarding the Angel in order to distract it.

"Okay you three, here's the plan," Misato relayed to her and the others. "You're going to do as much damage to its jaws as you can—try to aim for the joints. If this thing can't heal itself, then once you've finished that and neutralized its Field, we should be able to blow the top of its head off with a focused barrage, and expose its Core for good. From there, you should be able to kill it fairly easily."

"However," she added. "There's one last thing that I have to stress—don't kill it too close to the facility. If any blood gets in there, it'll ruin the ecosystem inside. So be careful. Is that understood?"

The three of them nodded.

"Roger that." "Course." "Yes, ma'am." They all replied.

"Then—commence mission!"

There was a clank when Asuka ejected her umbilical again, before she and Mari took off, with Toji a short distance behind them. The Eleventh Angel hissed as it felt its AT Field fall, and spun around towards the Evangelions. Asuka shouted, firing off a sextet of flechette spikes from one of Unit 02's pylons to draw its attention and open a gap. Predictably, the Angel lashed out at the red cyborg with its mantle-limbs—powerful but clumsy blows that its pilot danced out of the way of with ease. Mari took the opening, and leapt onto the closer limb, before she sprang off. The Fourth Child swung up with a hand-and-a-half strike, which cleaved a burning gash through the muscles and skin of the joint's upper section.

At this, the Angel twisted back, and raised an arm. Mari jumped away, but not before the solid limb cracked against her Eva's ankle. The girl landed with another pained hiss—the joint was badly sprained, and Unit 08 was wearing itself out by the minute.

"Cut Unit 08's sync from seventy eight to sixty eight!" she heard Misato order. Immediately, the feedback faded again, as did the other sensations coming from the Eva. It was a smart move—a ten percent drop would let the girl keep on fighting without sacrificing too much of the Eva's already disintegrating finesse.

Another barrage of missiles and cannon fire slammed into the Angel, pitting its flesh with craters and burns. Without warning, the monster's cries shot up a couple octaves.

"Got it!" Asuka yelled over, as it struck out with the wing on its other side. "Mari! Suzuhara! Hit it again!"

"Okay, Mari, let's go!" Toji said to her. Next to her, Unit 07 fired off a single round from the handgun, and promptly reached across to draw a progressive knife from one of its pylons. Mari nodded, and forced her slate blue Unit to stand again. The two darted over, intending to strike at the earlier-made wound. Unfortunately, the black Eva only had a knife—and with that, neither the skill nor the reach to effectively hurt the Angel.

"Quick! Get up!" Toji shouted, as he ditched the knife and pressed his hands together. Mari hopped onto the small platform, before the boy lifted his arms. Using the force as a springboard, Unit 08 soared up the side of the Angel, and cut another gash through its flesh.

"Oh—screw it!" The girl announced, and reached out with her right arm. Despite the damage, the Eva clamped down with its three functioning fingers—a strong enough hold for her to drive the lance in another time. "Princess, Misato, now!"

"All ships, target the right side of the Angel!" the latter shouted, her voice carried over into the Eva's comms by dint of its volume. "Fire!"

Several missiles slammed into the open wounds, and exploded, sending jets of toxic red blood spraying out of the Eleventh Angel's head into the bay.

"Needle pod two, fire!" Asuka shouted a moment later. There was a shunk-shunk-shunk as the electromagnetically-propelled darts sank into the Angel's other side, before Mari heard her give a grunt. Soon after, the top of the Eva appeared over the top of the Angel, sword in hand, and split open another wound in the monster. One hand was still hidden—but it was pretty obvious that Asuka had used her flechettes as hand and footholds to get up the Angel.

For a moment, the two Evas' gazes met.

"Mari," Asuka said.

"Princess," Mari said back. "…So, how's it going?"

"Decent. Still kinda…" the Second Child trailed off. "…but I'm alright. The Angel's kinda new, though."

"…That it is," the Fourth replied, as her Eva nodded sagely.

"Hello?!" Toji interrupted. "Heart-to-heart later, if ya don't mind! I've still got to deal with dis thing!"

The two turned towards the Angel's front. As it led the monster around towards the fleet again, the black shape of Evangelion Unit 07 glared back at them. Beneath her Eva's limbs, Mari felt muscles begin stretch and flex—the Angel was opening its mouth. Hurriedly, the Fourth and Second Children swung themselves to the side, and skimmed down the Angel's face. Their weapons dug into its flesh, and their combined weight yanked the toothy maw closed as their landing drove its chin into the seabed.

"Grab on!" Mari ordered. As the black Eva planted its foot on the Angel's lower lip and seized the soft tissue on its upper jaw, the girl noticed that it didn't have its umbilical cable plugged in anymore.

"Cable wasn't long enough," Toji grunted in explanation.

With that, Unit 02 looked over its shoulder towards the fleet behind them.

"Misato! The other side's cut up now! Shoot it!"

"All ships, open fire!"

An instant later, Mari heard a rumbling mixture of thuds and zips fill the air, as the Pacific Fleet unleashed all its firepower into the Angel's head. The Angel thrashed and howled in fury and pain—though the Evas just barely managed to hold its mouth shut. Explosions blossomed around its neck, joined by sprays of blood and charred meat which rained down into the contaminated waters. The damage was astounding, and the Angel's head and neck was utterly and completely ruined by the time the bombardment finished.

But still, the jaw had stayed on.

Shit.

"…Everyone, pull!" Mari yelled, and yanked on her plug's joysticks, hard. Immediately, the blue Eva threw itself back, pulling on the Angel's upper jawline with all its strength. Seconds later, Asuka—and then Toji—realised what their teammate was trying to do, and joined in with their own Evangelions.

The thing was that much of an Evangelion wasn't made of normal material—instead, the matter that makes up Evas and Angels was a particle-wave composite form, which offered a lot of interesting properties. These included not having to rely on an AT Field to stabilize itself when compiled into an organism, being able to self-modify when exposed to its whole's AT Field, and generally offering superior strength and toughness to normal elements.

As such, when three Evas applied as much force and leverage as they possibly could, even something over eleven times their size wasn't going to stand up intact—especially when it'd just taken a lot of damage.

The last few bands of meat holding the jaw in place snapped one by one—until finally, the last piece tore. The Angel's upper jaw ripped off, throwing the Evangelions off their perch as a couple hundred metres of flesh and bone suddenly—and very messily—came loose. The limb hung in the air for a fraction of a second, before it crashed back down on the mandible, and immediately slid off into the bay with the Evas. The pilots let out a disharmonious trio of startled shouts, as they found themselves shoved into the water by a dismembered slab of meat—and a trio of grunts as they made contact.

.

Mari groaned, and looked up in front of Unit 08. The heat lance protruded out of the Angel's head, just a short reach away from her Eva.

"Is everyone okay there?" she heard Misato ask. "Evangelions, do you copy?"

"…Mari here," the girl offered. "I'm… I'm okay. Roughly."

A whirring, shearing sound came from her left. The girl glanced over, just before the 'Magoroku'-class progressive sword sliced through a large chunk of Angel flesh, which Unit 02 pushed off of itself.

"Shikinami… present," its strawberry blonde pilot reported. Between the two of them, a third and final Eva Unit—thoroughly stained with red, but clearly wearing black armour—crawled out into the open.

"And me. I'm still here, too," Toji added, wearily.

"…We still have an Angel to kill, don't we?" Mari asked. Asuka nodded.

"Yeah. So let's finish that damned thing off."

But as the Evas pulled themselves up and rose to their feet, they heard something. A humming, crackling noise… from right above them. They looked up.

Looming there was the Eleventh Angel. It looked almost as it had before—a great, primeval shark with a split mantle and wing-like fins—except most of its front half was now stained with its own blood, and its head had been obliterated. Instead, its Core sat at the front of its open throat, framed by the Angel's still-intact mandible below it. The red jewel sparked and shimmered from within, building up an immense amount of energy…

"Deploy AT Field!" Mari and Asuka commanded, followed immediately after by Toji thinking the same. The cross blast erupted from the Eleventh's Core, and sprayed out to the sides. Fortunately, the pilots' combined AT Fields dampened the force of the attack—though force wasn't the only issue. When the blast died, the Evas' armour glowed dimly, softened and weakened from the heat of the attack.

"D-dammit!" Mari hissed in pain, before she managed to steady herself. "This thing's really starting to piss me off now!"

"Princess! Toji!" She said to her teammates. "Come on! We're not done yet!"

The Angel howled at them, and struck out with its mantle-limbs. Mari dodged to the side, and leapt up on one to use it as a springboard—soon followed by Toji doing the same—while Asuka just launched herself at the Angel's mandibles, and vaulted over its wall of teeth. The creature swung itself away, but the Evas had already gotten onto it. Their AT Fields reached out and smothered its own, nullifying its final defense against them. Frantically, the Core lit up, as it tried to charge a second cross blast.

"No ya don't!"

Unit 07 raised its arm, and pumped the trigger twice. The last two rounds embedded themselves in the Core's outer layer with a crack, and the glow snuffed out instantly.

Simultaneously, Mari jumped over the Angel's neck, and Asuka charged across its shrunken tongue—their weapons aimed at the sole vital organ in their enemy's body.

"Die!"

Shunk.

Crack.

.

The Core had been pierced through twice—the spear from the top, and the sword from the front. For a moment, it darkened from red to brown, and from brown to black. Then, with a noise like breaking glass, it cracked apart.

.

"Target AT Field is silent," one of the bridge technicians read out over the radio. "Eleventh Angel… confirmed deceased."

As a cheer picked up in the background, Mari closed her channel to the fleet, and let out a tired breath. Around her and the other Evas, the Angel's frozen body had started to break up—without a soul to sustain itself, pieces of muscle and armoured skin just melted away into LCL, like ice cream in a microwave. Unlike the other ones, however, it didn't seem to be dissolving completely. Much of its internal musculature remained intact, as did its skeleton. Kinda weird, but… well, the girl didn't have the energy to be concerned.

Rather than quip something and try to get a laugh, Mari just sighed in relief. The Angel was dead, the MPZ was safe, and—upon a little glance at the other com screens—everyone else was alive and mostly intact.

Mari was… content.

And at last… even if it was just for a minute, there was silence.

.