"So, what are we supposed to do to be able to stop that thing?" Shinji asked as he sat at Unit-01's controls. The purple and green Evangelion was positioned on top of a large hill just outside of Tokyo-3. Unit-00 stood beside it with Rei at its controls. This was the first time that they had both been deployed at the same time, but thanks to their constant virtual training it felt like they had done this countless times before. But not with an opponent like the one they faced now.
Ramiel was different than the previous Angels that Shinji had already fought and defeated. Sachiel and Shamshel had both been organic looking being that stood about as tall as an Evangelion and had sections of exposed bone covering their bodies. Ramiel had none of those features. Instead, the Angel looked more like some kind of giant blue diamond larger than a city block. If it weren't for the telltale red orb positioned in the center of the crystalline mass, Shinji wouldn't have even been able to recognize that Ramiel was an Angel at all.
Shinji's gaze flickered up to the small screen in the corner of his view that showed his fellow pilot. Rei seemed to be as cold and emotionless as ever. 'How can she possibly be so calm right now?' he thought silently to himself. Although a moment of consideration had him realize that just because Rei never showed any signs of emotion didn't mean that she didn't feel anything. A moment later, something else occurred to the pilot as well. The Angel was not actually doing anything other than just floating there ominously above the city.
"We're working on finding a plan now." Misato finally answered. "For now you should just-"
Misato's voice was suddenly drowned out by a loud screeching sound that was almost like metal scraping against metal, but not quite. Shinji was forced to tightly cover his ears as he winced from the pain. He could see on his screen that Rei was also covering her ears and that Misato had been forced to take off her headset on account of the harsh noise as well. Shinji then noticed where the sound was coming from.
The light reflecting off of Ramiel's surface seemed to ripple along its sides as the bottommost point of the Angel began to twist downward to form a very long and narrow ridged protrusion that he thought seemed suspiciously like a drill head. Shinji's suspicions were soon proven accurate as the drill continued to grow out until it reached the ground and the Angel began drilling a hole into the Earth.
The loud screeching made it hard to concentrate on that, however, and Shinji had to quickly move one of his hands from his ear and press a button on his console that muted Unit-01's external speakers. Shinji relaxed slightly as the sound quickly died out and he saw that Rei had done the same, though it was still not completely gone. The screeching was loud enough that it penetrated through the Evangelion's armor and reverberated throughout the Entry Plug, though was still not nearly as loud as it had been just a mere moment before.
"It looks like it's trying to drill into the ground." Misato had readjusted her headset so that she could no longer hear the sound either. "We need to stop it before it reaches the GeoFront!"
"But how are we supposed to do that?" Shinji asked frantically.
"We don't know for sure yet." Was Miasto's response. "But I guess the best thing to start with is to just try shooting at it for now."
Shinji could only sigh as he and Rei had to turn their Evangelions around and head over to the nearest weapons cache. Rei grabbed her preferred sniper rifle for Unit-00 while Shinji had to look over his various options before finally settling on a large machine gun to use. After arming themselves they returned to the hill to assume firing positions.
"Why didn't we just start with this?" Shinji muttered as he readied his Eva's gun while Rei had already managed to lay Unit-00 down onto its stomach in a sniping position.
Rei fired her gun straight at the Angel and an energy blast shot out of the rifle so fast it was hard to follow as it hit the Angel dead on. The attack didn't seem to have had any effect at first, but after a second, the Angel's drill stopped turning and retracted back into its body.
"Huh, I guess that actually worked." Shinji said.
However, as the drill finished retracting back into the Angel, Ramiel's entire form became to warp. The diamond shape twisted and turned as its upper and lower halves were pulled apart and the Angel formed an hourglass-like shape connected by its core, which started to glow bright red before the two halves merged back together. As the Angel reassumed its original diamond form, a beam of searing hot energy shot like a scaled-up version of the one Rei had fired at it shot out of the corner facing the two pilots.
Shinji only had a split second to react as the energy beam hurtled towards Unit-00. Without really thinking, he turned Unit-01 towards the other Evangelion and lunged forward, arms outstretched. He managed to knock her out of the way of the blast and the two rolled down the hill as the beam tore clean through the ground were Unit-00 had just been as if it were nothing at all.
"Okay, new plan." Misato said as the two stood their Evangelions back up again. "Don't shoot at the Angel."
"Yeah, that was kind of obvious." Shinji said as he looked at the massive hole where the energy beam had passed through the hillside. "But what do we do now?"
"Well," Misato began, "our analysis indicates that the Angel attacked by absorbing the energy of Rei's shot and spreading it along its body, magnifying the energy by over a hundred times its original power before launching it back."
Shinji wasn't sure how that was supposed to work, but this wasn't the time to argue science he didn't really understand at all. Instead, he just waited for Misato to continue.
"Maybe if we fire a powerful enough blast at it, we could overload the Angel and cause it to destroy itself when attempting to fire it back?"
"It's too risky." Rei pointed out. "We do not know how much power we would need to do that and if the attack was not strong enough then we would only make things worse. Also, we do not have enough time to gather the energy and attack. The Angel has already resumed drilling and Unit-00's Umbilical Cable was severed in the fall, leaving it with only five minutes of reserve power."
"It was just an idea." Misato said defensively.
"I have another plan." Said Rei.
"Well, what is it?"
"While the Angel was charging up its attack, it briefly left its core exposed for approximately 3.7 seconds. If Unit-01 can fire at the Angel and make it attack again, I should be able to make the shot and destroy the core while it is exposed."
"But if your plan doesn't work, you could be killed!" Shinji pointed out. "Or me. In fact, we would probably both die if this thing goes wrong!"
"The plan is not without risk." Rei agreed. "But you should have plenty of time to dodge the Angel's attack, seeing as you were able to save me from the last one, and I am expendable."
"Wait, what was that last part?"
"It doesn't look like we have any choice and were out of time." Misato said. "We're going to have to do it."
"This is crazy!" Shinji tried to argue.
"Yes, but do you have any other ideas?" Misato asked. "We only have a few minutes before the Angel will breach the GeoFront."
"Fine." Shinji finally relented. "But this had better work."
Shinji pointed his gun towards the Angel again and waited for Rei to get into position. As soon as Rei gave him the signal, he opened fire on Ramiel, sending a barrage of energy blasts crashing into the Angel. Like before, Ramiel stopped drilling and formed itself into an hourglass shape, but at the moment it reached the peak of its transformation and was about to crash back together again, Rei fired her gun again and the solitary bolt of energy reached its mark.
Ramiel did not react to the attack. The two halves of its hourglass-like form crashed back into each other like before. Shinji readied himself to dodge the ensuing attack, but no attack came. Shinji thought he could faintly hear the sound of an explosion as the Angel seemed to recoil in the air. Its body began to twist and contort violently for a moment as it slowly began to shrink around its core.
"Does this mean that we won?" Shinji asked.
"It looks like it." Misato said excitedly, but then her smile faded away. "Wait a minute, what's it doing now?"
Shinji watched as Ramiel began to charge towards them. He instinctively held his, or rather Unit-01's, arms to defend himself as the Angel came closer. However, it soon became clear that the Angel wasn't after him, it was going towards Rei. Rei did nothing to defend herself from it, however, as she could tell that it didn't have enough time to reach her and, sure enough, by the time Ramiel reached her, it had been reduced to nothing but its core which floated harmlessly and unmoving in front of her.
Unit-00 stood there unmoving as Ramiel's core floated in front of it. Rei then slowly raised Unit-00's arms up slowly around it and looked as if she was going to grab hold of the core between the Eva's hands. Shinji thought there was something majestic about the scene, but e moment was interrupted as the core suddenly exploded.
Rei looked around. She was drifting aimlessly through what seemed to be a clear blue sky, but there was no ground beneath her. Light filled everywhere, but there was no source for it to come from. In front of Rei was a familiar red sphere that she recognized instantly as the core of the Angel Ramiel.
"Where am I?" Rei asked aloud.
-That is an interesting question.- The core responded. -But I think you already know the answer to that, don't you?-
"I am dreaming." Rei observed. "I have never had a dream before."
-Correct.-
"You still have not explained why you are here."
-No, I have not.-
"Then why are you here?" Rei asked the core.
-I am not sure that I can answer that question right now, Rei Deux. I believe that is a question you must answer for yourself.-
"How do you know that name?"
-We are in your mind.- Ramiel reminded her. -It is only natural that I would know who you are, as well as what you are.-
"You are not authorized to know that information."
-Are you sure about that? After all, I am a part of you now.-
Shinji sat by Rei's bedside as she lay unconscious in the hospital, much like he had after the battle against Sachiel. He wondered briefly if she was having a dream similar to the one he had, but that thought was quickly interrupted as Misato walked into the room.
"How's she doing?" Misato asked.
"The doctor said she'll be fine." Shinji explained. "She just needs some time to rest and recover."
Misato stood in silence looking at the unconscious Rei before turning back to Shinji. "We've just gotten word Evangelion Unit-02 and its pilot are being transferred her. I've been asked to rendezvous with them and I was wondering if you would be willing to go with me. I thought it would be a good chance to get to know your fellow pilot before you have to work together."
"I would." Shinji said. "But I don't want to leave Rei while she's in this condition."
"That will not be an issue." Shinji almost jumped out of his chair as Rei suddenly sat up. "I will go with you."