Initial Perturbation Chapter 10: tANGEnt, an evangelion fanfic

I do not own the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor any other aspects of it. The salvage operation was a complete failure. Honest! And the garage out the back only holds an Airbus A380. Honest!

Rating: T - a fair bit of swearing (this should probably be rated higher)

Initial Perturbation

CHAPTER 10 - tANGEnt

Asuka sat on a window bench in the hospital, enjoying the sun and waiting for time's healing to come to her friends. It was Sunday, the day of rest.

She heard muttering from the doorway. "That girl's supposed to be in her room, but she's always wandering around and visiting that boy! Her treatment..."

Another voice, male. "Thankyou, ma'am. Second Child, come with me."

Asuke turned around sharply. "What are you bozos doing here? This is a hospital you know! Or...is it an Angel?"

"I couldn't say, Miss."

"Geben Sie mir den Informations herr Dummkopf! Hey, hands off! Verboten!" Asuka struggled as the Section-2 agent grabbed her.

(The staff are refusing to give us the location of the Third Child. They say he is still not fit for duty.)

"Ignore them. Search the Pilot's wing."

(Team One here. We have located the First Child and are en-route to headquarters. Out.)

"Acknowledged."

(Wilheim here. We have located the Third Child, but he's been sedated by the staff.)

"Jeezus! Take him to the Operations branch immediately! Ikari's gonna be pissed."

(They're in it deep, Nerv owns this facility.)

"Not officially. Second Child en route to Headquarters. Out."

Commander Ikari looked down intensely at his chief scientist, who stood on the command bridge with her hands stuffed deep into her lab-coat pockets. "How long?"

"At least twenty minutes. We've put him into an LCL environment and increased his metabolism rate to help process the sedatives. I can't imagine what that crazy nurse was thinking - he'd be out for hours without our help."

"Mankind is our most insipid threat. We will deal with the situation as it stands."

"Uh...yes, sir. I suppose we'll need Rei try to pilot." Ritsuko said with a little maudlin creeping into her voice. "Rei, it's time." she said to the monitor before her.

The image of a silent girl just nodded.

Gendo turned and barked imperiously. "What is the status of the Second Child?"

Motoko answered, "Moody. We're starting her synch right now."

Misato entered the command deck at full pace. "The bastard's too fast! We'll have to intercept it in the geofront!"

Shigeru groaned as information was pumped into his display. "It's just smashed the Mutsuoka defense line. Our defenses are being overpowered."

"Maybe, but that thing's still got to get through the geo-front's armour to get to us. Even the fifth Angel barely managed that." Makoto said optimistically.

"You wouldn't say that if you'd seen the readings we've received on it's partical cannon! Even the fifth wasn't in this thing's league. The Eva's won't be able to take a direct hit, with or without an AT field."

She looked to the Commander for confirmation. He gave a slight nod before turning his attention back to the main display. "Get Asuka up there now! Send Unit 01 with the Dummy Plug." she commanded.

"My god! Major, you were right! The geofront shell went in one shot!" Mokoto gasped in shock. "It's output it increasing with time!"

Misato snorted. "More damned 'evolution'. It's almost like they're being sent to test us."

"Unit 01 and 02 en-route to surface." Shigeru reported.

Maya spoke up, "The Dummy Plug system is operating within parameters, with 76% of emotional elements still unknown."

Misato grimaced. "We'll have to be careful of that thing. Give me a visual of the Angel!"

The command deck paused to absorb the image of wrath before them. Zeruel slid down the shaft created in the armour of the geofront with a grace that belied it's chunky form, emerging through the burning dust and smoke. It hovered as it touched down some hundreds of meters from Misato's chosen exit point for the Evas.

"The Eva's have surfaced." Mokoto reported.

"Asuka's synch ratio is 43%...that's better than before at least."

"Yeah, but about two-thirds her best. And the dummy-plug?"

"Between 60 and 70%."

"Okay. Asuka, Unit One - the Angel has a beam weapon with a very large anticipated range and power. Unit 01 will act as a decoy, charge at the Angel but avoid any fire at all costs. Asuka, you're to get in close for close-quarters melee combat. Unit 01 is to move in when possible."

(The same old plan...) Asuka mumbled. "You keep that purple monster under control, I can't fight the Angel and watch my back at the same time!"

Maya called out, "We've been working on the dummy-plugs control algoriths, it absolutely won't attack you Asuka! I promise!"

(Oh, whatever. Give me some backup I can trust!) the german pilot growled, unsheathing her weapons and watching the approaching Angel with a vigilant glare.

"Unit 01 charge!" Misato commanded. The beast set to with a lunge, progressive katana held back loosely at the ready.

The Angel's face lit up as a charge of fire built up behind behind the masked face. A bolt of seering light accelerated toward the dummy-plug controlled Unit 01. It evaded the death-blow with a deft side-long cartwheel to the left. The Eva heaved with the extreme effort while warnings plagued the monitoring tech's readouts. Purple armour seeped and charred where the seething blast had been missed by millimeters as Unit 01 regained it's feet.

Asuka let the test-type draw the Angel's attention. She quickly stole across to the Angel by keeping low and moving smoothly until the brute was at the outer limit of her strike range.

She drew in a breath as Unit 01 dove behind a bunker set into a lush green hill, which was promptly melted under the Angel's barrage.

(That Oni makes a good target for the Shito, with Shinji safely asleep on the job. Time to show them what a real pilot can do. Your ass is mine, mein Engel!)

Unit 02 moved in a sudden rush to met the Angel of Might's backside with a wicked double-bladed attack.

"Rei, are you alright?" Ritsuko called through the comm. system.

The girl just nodded, barely grimacing as the pain of the incomplete connection hit her nervous system like an voltage shock.

"The synchro-graph is reversing..." Maya reported helplessly as the computer graphics illustrated the virtual nerve connection phase relationships diverged from each-other.

The girl choked suddenly as the pain overwhelmed her. She retched as thick bile filled her mouth, leaking past her lips and spreading slowly through the LCL to settle on her plugsuit. Tears mixed lazily with the surrouding fluid to form smokey patterns in front of the striken girl's eyes.

"Rei!" Akagi gasped. "Break the connection! She's going into shock!" She looked at the Commander. "Sir..."

"I see. Get her out of there. I want a personal briefing on our options in two minutes."

Doctor Akagi bolted from the command deck to the first Eva cage, leaving the sounds of battle behind her to face a different kind of crisis.

Unit 02 ducked as the Angel of Might turned slowly, having narrowly missed her forearm with a cookie-cutter arm attack. She slashed determinedly again at it's thick black-and-white hide, each wound drawing thick amber fluid that hardened into a tough scab almost instantly. It was now covered in a child's criss-crossed scrawl of wounds like a bar of soap attacked by a cat, but it wasn't showing any regret. No matter how deep the wound, the Angel evenly kept trying to sight the Eva, and Asuka kept avoiding it's deadly gaze. "Ich vernichte Sie Engel!" she hissed.

Again Unit 01 charged, thrashing out with the now charred and tip-less progressive katana. Zuriel's eyes glowed in response to the purple behemoth. Long shadows were cast along the ground as the Eva took a direct hit, spinning through the air in a spectacular but short arc. Purple slag oozed down as Unit 01 righted itself on a broken left leg. Raising itself, acrid blue smoke billowing from the blasted right shoulder and face armour. Dark-red, burnt flesh merged into black char around the area of the hit, centered by pale exposed bone. A heavy mist exuded from the wound and from the Unit's mouth. Unit 01 stood up on the damaged limb, defiantly angry. It began to move toward the Angel yet again, hands outstretched to fight on. It regarded Zuruel with an unforgiving glower.

A quicksilver flash sliced into Unit 01's undamaged leg's knee as it's twin precisely cleaved the Eva's right shoulder away. Unit 01 teetered on it's remaining damaged limb as the arm fell to the ground, it's glare never wavering.

"She won't awaken, Ikari. Not for that god-foresaken dummy-plug." Fuyutski said calmly as the man before him's fist clenched.

Zuruel's eyes lit up once more.

"Indeed." Ikari answered. "I have seen enough." Turning to Maya, he barked, "Shut it off."

Unit 01 dropped like a rag-doll. Zuriel held it's fire as it redirected it's attention to Asuka's red machine.

Gendo flicked his attention away to his private monitor, fixing his eyes on the delicate and mute girl who stood apologetic before the camera pickup. The slip of a girl was still damp with LCL as the plug-suit clung to her slim frame. One hand was held loosely at neck height, covering the physically perfect yet now shamefully useless voicebox of her throat. The other lay at waist height, open and faced forward in a pathetic yet eloquent plea.

He pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes and sighing silently. "I'm sorry, Rei. Dr. Akagi...please proceed."

"Sir...?" the blonde's voice carried over the communications line, seeming hollow.

"Do it!"

Rei's arms fell to her sides. Her face betrayed no emotion, and for a moment she was the Rei of old again, his model of perfection. Then she nodded her head forward, and there it stayed.

Ritsuko pursed her lips. "I...yes, sir." she answered solemnly. "Rei...let me be your friend." The words came out a little hoarsly.

The girl looked inquiringly at the scientist.

Ritsuko's bottom lip wobbled a trifle. "The...friend who helps when it is time to die."

Rei blinked slowly in assent. Ritsuko saw a trace of gratitude in the broken Child's manner.

The Commander pushed his glasses back again, and turned off the monitor feed to the cage. He sat indifferent as Unit 02 desperately evaded the retribution being meted by the messenger. Fuyutski rested a hand on his shoulder for a moment, quickly falling back to give the Commander the personal space he needed.

(Damn you!) Asuka panted, almost tripping over her umbilical cable as she fell in behind the Angel once more. The close calls had begun to tell on the Eva, scarlet armour plates fuming in places and bent, scratched and broken in others. She had lost one pinky and some hand in a particularly close blow, a shoulder pylon and some calf muscle in the course of replacing a snapped cable in another. (This thing doesn't even need an AT field!) she howled in frustration.

'How long until she's tempted to give in?' Misato wondered as she watched the gruesome battering down of Asuka's defenses as the minutes dragged on. 'It's not an even a close fight...she is losing, slowly. All her skills and training, all of it just to prolong this slow death. Fuck! I have to do something!'

Straking the Kodachi through the Angel's back, Asuka drew back and looked for the break. Left. Following the Angel's turn, she sliced again and slid to a stop through the torn up and muddy soil. Now right, shoulder in to the Angel and twirl out to stay away from those cutters. 'I can't keep this up!' she thought as desperation and anguish chewed at her nerve. She knew she was slowing down - the Eva's undamaged muscles ached, let alone the severed and bruised ones. It was a matter of time...

"Asuka! We're sending backup now! Just hold it off for another few minutes!" Misato's voice sounded distant somehow, like a distraction in a vivid dream. A dream of a losing battle.

(About time!) she spat in annoyance, landing a kick on the Angel's side. It succeeded in slowing the brute's turn, but little else.

"We're sending Unit Zero up - keep the Angel distracted until it can get in range."

(Keep it distracted...you're shitting me, right?) Asuka scowled in disgust. (Tell Rei to get her ass here immediately! Schnell, schnell!)

The blue machine dashed out of the elevator shaft, low to the ground and cat-like with progressive katana already in-hand. Asuk saw it and gritted her teeth. The prototype was far too exposed. If the Angel saw it...

(Alright Angel, time to see what Asuka Langley Sohryu can really do!)

She leapt, flipping her Eva in a partial somersaut over the Angel and latched onto it's sides with her Eva's long legs. Letting momentum carry her, Asuka vaulted over backwards with the Angel in her grip, slamming it to the ground with the combination of their combined momentum. Jumping up quickly, Unit 02 again grabbed some air and focused her landing onto the Angel's core through the medium of the tip of a progressive short-sword. A single crack split along the red orb as she came crashing down.

A silver flash ripped the air as Asuka felt her side split open. A perfectly straight gash appeared in Unit 02's abdomen as she collapsed, purple blood seeping from the wound profusely and pulsing with the Evangelion's great heart beat. In the plug, Asuka threw up into the surrounding LCL as the pain nauseated her. The Eva lay still as death, completely unable to move.

"Asuka! Maya, cut back the feedback! Asuka! Don't let it get to you Asuka, you are not the Eva! Let the pain go!"

The Angel righted itself and turned to face the rapidly galloping Unit 00. Shinji line it up it grimly, determination steeling his features into a rigid mask. "God damn you..." he rumbled at an octave lower than his throat was used to. Twin lances of silver sprung at him suddenly, but he turned the blue Eva sideways to avoid the mutilating blow. In the same fluid motion, the katana rang out in a wide arc as he reached under and around the projections. They met the keen vibrating edge of the sword to be cut cleanly.

"NYAAAAHHHH!" Shinji roared as he charged the hulking Angel, sword held determindly in front of him. The yellow glow built up and blew forward. Shinji was driven back as the sword took the brunt of the fire even as his AT field reduced it's ferocity to a survivable level. Behind the blinding light, he heard the crack as the sword broke, the tip slamming into his borrowed Eva, the blade flat-side on.

"Okay, that's one each!" he snarled as he brought the stub of the foreshortened sword around. The gangly cyclops leered at the stubby Angel in silent rage.

The deadly glow built up again. "My cue!" Shinji said as he violently sidestepped to the Angel's side is a sweeping manouvre. He brought the remnants of the sword down on the beast's shoulder hard. It spun out of his hands as it encountered the steely body of the Angel of Might. "Ah, shit."

Unarmed, the moments seemed to pause in mockery as Zuriel turned to sight the Eva, eyes glowing with the buildup of power.

"REI!" Asuka cried, tossing him a Kodachi with an effort that caused her to convulse as her Eva was forced to open it's wounds. Power lit the Angel's face as Shinji caught the weapon and leapt directly at it.

White fire spewed through the eyesockets of the Angel as the short sword cut through the mask and lodging itself. The black beast howled with a sound that resembled a hell-spawned whale's call as it cast blindly about. The fire raged and ate away at the Angel's surrounding flesh, fed by it's own S2 organ. The messenger continued to wail, thrashing in obvious agony. Unit Zero stepped back as Shinji collected himself.

"Shinji! Progressive knife!" Misato cried. Shinji blinked, then released the shoulder holster. He pulled the knife from it's scabbard and leapt on the Angel, throwing it to the ground, molten-white flash spewing forth from it. A foreshortened bladed arm thrust up at him, slicing a gash into the Zero's head armour. Shinji held the knife high aloft in both hands and brought the knife plunging into Zuriel's core while white flames leapt and danced in front of him. The core's glassy cover shattered, blunting the knife in the process. He brought the knife up and down again, cutting a wedge out of the vividly red, rubbery core material. The Angel howled and shook as again the knife descended. This time, it pierced to the core's center. The Angel bucked spasmodically for a while before settling to twitches. The fountain of fire issuing from it's face turned from white to yellow, cooling in intensity as it fed on it's progenitor's flesh.

(Blue pattern has ceased! They did it!) Makoto cried in jubilation.

"Asuka?" Shinji called out.

"Baka Shinji...sure took your stupid time..." Asuka called out weakly. Her grin shone through on her pale, drawn face as her Eva deactivated.

Author's Rant:
Thanks to all the reviewers and your comments, feedback is an important part of keeping control...

Is a critic better than a fan? I must thank the critic who told me I even got the title of this story wrong (the spelling of 'Perturbation' is...a little different in real life). Thanks to pyramidgirl89 for the red-pen treatment.

-/ Omake for Chapter #10 /-

Commander Ikari pushed his glasses further up his nose, closing his eyes and gasping in pain. "Gaackkk! Argh, what the hell am I doing?"

Rei used sign language: you seem to be self-mutilating

Gendo slowly and gingerly pulled the stem of the amber-tinted glasses out of his nasal orifice. "Oh, geez...oooh..." he sighed in relief. The bloody, snotty things fell to the floor.

Rei used sign language: do it again

Ikari grabbed a tissue from a box and gently inserted it into the damaged nostril. "That's it, your brother has got to go. How the hell did he put them in my nose in the first place?"

Rei used sign language: I used my AT field to help. Don't I get any credit?

"What are you doing with your hands, Rei?"

Rei used sign language: just practising

"If only Yui were alive...or child-minding services were reasonably priced." with that, the future Commander of Nerv left the room in search of some orally-administered aenesthetic. Fermented from grain.

Rei picked up the broken glasses. She didn't want to forget this moment they had shared together.

Rei used sign language: Ick. I need to wash my hands.

-fin-