Previously on…
AGE OF MARVELS
The attempt to reactivate Unit Zero was a disaster. Rei (the sixth Rei clone, her identity hidden from all but Natalie Summers) was killed in the attempt, but not before speaking cryptically to Ritsuko about "The Lady in the Eva"
Distraught, Shinji was comforted by Ritsuko, while Asuka was confronted by Summers about her relationship with Mari.
Meanwhile, Rei (Five) awoke from a nightmare, sharing a psychic imprint of her clone sister's death in Unit Zero.
Giving the pilots barely a moment to breathe, the Fifth Angel appeared over the city. Shinji was deployed and nearly killed as the Angel crippled Unit One's arm and almost boiled him alive in the entry plug. Rather than risk putting both Evas out of commission, Nerv executed a strategic withdrawal and holed up to devise a strategy to defeat the massively powerful Angel.
With just barely enough power available from the massive arc reactors that power the city, base, and Evas, Nerv began work to set up a forward base to fire the fusion cannon in hopes of destroy the enemy from a distance, sparing Asuka from the same fate that befell Shinji, who volunteered to shield her.
Ritsuko seized on this opportunity to sneak into Summer's lab while the base was mostly deserted and the power to all but the most vital systems shut down. Her discoveries in Summers' lab are only the beginning. Many events of great import would take place this night, shaping the future for years to come…
THE BEST DEFENSE
Part 2
Maya had never been more nervous than she was as she rode in the APC up the side of Mount Asama to the forward firing position, staring at her tablet as if it held the keys to creation. She didn't want to join in the fake, flighty conversation between the other techs. Hyuga and Aoba were arguing about some freaking manga and the others were talking about the kids, making vacation plans as if they weren't all hanging from the very edge, a hair's breadth away from destruction. She swallowed, hard, and went over everything again. It wasn't long until the power grid would shut down and come under control of the forward base.
Looking out the window, she marveled at how fast all of this had come together. Nerv poured everything into this effort- crawlers were carrying dormant arc reactors up the mountainside, portable units that would lend a trickle to the floor from the city reactors, dumping their output into the rising current of energy that would pour through the fusion cannon. Maya went over the numbers again and again, hoping against hope that it would hold, that the cannon wouldn't simply disintegrate and blow up in the Eva's face.
A whole snaking convoy of trucks and machines thundered up from the valley below. New cables were being laid, braided together by a machine that was repurposed from weaving bridge cable to feed the lines into enormous capacitors and transformers that would do the job of funneling the vast amounts of energy through single bundle of cable into the fusion cannon.
When the vehicle lurched to a stop, she shot to her feet, waiting anxiously as the ramp lowered, and shuffled out, clutching her tablet to her chest, looking around nervously, worried that her nerves would make it more obvious she was hiding something. The thought of Ritsuko going into that woman's laboratory alone scared the hell out of her. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw Summers heading for the temporary command center, a block prefabricated structure resting on pilings set into the hillside. Maya made her way towards it, stopping to gape at the forest of electrical wires and connections snaking their way around the mountainside. The Evas were still rolling up, lying on huge carriers that rolled on massive caterpillar treads, worming their way up the hill.
She stopped as the staff car carrying the pilots rolled past her and the other techs. She caught a glimpse of them as they went past, the boy's pale face soaking in the night breeze. It was unusually cool that night, and the cloud cover was rolling in, obscuring the stars. She felt a hum of electricity in the air and realized it was probably literally there, not just in her head. She looked around, and headed for the command bunker, joining the flow of technicians heading inside.
The structure was long, low, and flat, and didn't overlook the actual position of the Evas. What little power they dared syphon off was used for LCD screens that showed the massive machines rolling to a halt. Lying face down with their necks cracked open, they looked dead and eerie, and Maya tried not to gaze too hard at them. Instead, she went about logging into her terminal. She needed to talk to Ritsuko, to make sure she was in place. The chronometer said the power was switching off in about an hour, so she had some time.
The Commander walked through the bunker. She bristled when she saw him, remembering that morning through a fog of fatigue and caffeine. Summers walked beside him, and glanced at Maya from the corner of her eye.
Maya shivered. It was like those red eyes looked through her, seeing her secrets. She felt a weight settle on the back of her head, like a hand just touching the short hairs at the back of her neck, and had the feeling of hearing a distant whisper. She suddenly thought of Ritsuko, sneaking around the bowels of Nerv.
Summers glanced at her and smiled warmly, as if they shared some secret, and walked over.
"Ibuki," she said.
"Doctor Summers," said Maya, sitting up in her chair. She hoped this would be over soon. It was like talking to a huge spider.
Summers looked through her again, then turned and walked off, sliding her arm through the Commander's. Couldn't they keep that to themselves?
Maya turned around. "Disgusting," she muttered.
"You're telling me," Aoba whispered. "What does she see in him?"
"Excuse me?" said Maya.
"Summers. She's like, like, an eleven. With him. Commander Creepy."
Maya blinked a few times. "You're kidding, right?"
"No way. Her hair is so silky. I wonder what kind of conditioner she uses."
"I'm ending this conversation," said Maya, turning back to her terminal.
Shinji limped across the dirt towards the crawler. Around the side of the mountain he could see the glow from the Angel as it bored into the city, now only hours away from breaching the base. He didn't know why, but he knew the creature was desperate to breach Terminal Dogma and get at whatever was inside, so much so that it would risk death by coming here. Father had told him to expect the enemy to be single minded and merciless in its pursuits, utterly remorseless. He winced at the phantom burn on his shoulder, which felt like it was making his very bones itch, and glanced over at Asuka.
She had her game face on, which meant that she walked with her spine as straight as an iron bar and carried her helmet under her arm, striding purposely towards the Eva. He wished she'd picked another time to inform him, in so many words, that she didn't love him. It wasn't exactly a shock and he didn't feel that bad about it, but he didn't need that rattling around in his mind on top of everything else.
The Eva lay face down in the carrier-crawler, and he shuddered when he saw the primer-colored sections of emergency replacement plating. The heat-reflective coating had done zilch to protect him, but it looked like the beast was covered in bandages. The heat shield he was supposed to deploy to cover Asuka lay a few hundred meters away. It gave him a sense of vertigo thinking about how small all this would look from his Eva's perspective. He pushed that out of his mind and calmed himself, focusing on the breathing exercises he'd learned at Castle von Doom. He felt a calm settle over him.
Asuka stopped before peeling off for Unit Two. "Shinji."
"Good luck," he said.
"Good hunting," she said, smirking at him a little. She turned and stalked off, and he rather pointedly did not look at her backside, flexing under skintight red cloth. He settled his helmet under his arm and started on his way up the stairs towards the Evangelion.
He missed Ritsuko being here to help him in, but on the plus side, Summers was off in the bunker, horning in on the command. It didn't matter; he and Asuka were basically on their own and once the operation started, there was little need to converse with anyone on the ground. He headed up towards the plug and walked down the long entry gangway towards it. A few techs clustered around, and took his helmet while he climbed inside.
Once he was in, he put his helmet on and clipped it into the restraint and strapped himself in, giving the techs the go sign before the sealed him in. The Eva came up in low power mode, giving him communications and instrumentation before the LCL flooded in. He looked at the time; fifteen minutes. He thought about taking his helmet off but thought better of it. If there was any chance that the Eva would be needed early, he didn't want to end up choking on the foul, allegedly breathable liquid.
He decided to kill time by going through his instruments and making sure all his switches were set. Someone checked all this for him, but he enjoyed doing it himself, enjoyed the orderliness of it. Once he'd checked everything twice, he sat back and waited until the radio crackled in his ear.
"Shinji? This is Lieutenant Ibuki."
"Hi," said Shinji. "Is everything ready?"
"Yes. We're going to start you up first, to make sure that the Eva doesn't get difficult on us. We had to be hasty with the repairs."
"Well," Shinji sighed, "I wouldn't want it to be difficult, would I?"
Maya swallowed, making the radio crackled. "Yeah. Beginning LCL infusion."
He waited, drumming his fingers on the yoke while the fluid flooded in around him and his displays color-corrected to appear in natural colors in the orange liquid. When it was full he relaxed, feeling the slight buoyancy it gave him. The synchronization process started, and it made him grit his teeth. The Eva was still sore, its arm still throbbing from the damage that the Angel had inflicted on it. He felt himself growling.
"Shinji?" said Maya. "You okay?"
"Fine," he snapped.
"We're getting some weird numbers up here. I want you to tell me if anything feels weird or out of place, okay?"
He nodded, glancing at her image on one of his smaller displays. He looked up and focused on getting the Eva into a crouching position, and stood up, putting one foot ahead of the crawler. The shield was ahead of him, almost as tall as he -scratch that, the Eva- was, ready to be picked up and carried. He slid the left arm through the straps and hefted it, testing its weight. It threw his balance off, but there was nothing to be done about that.
With the flip of a switch he brought up one of the remote cameras. Asuka was getting up and fitting herself with the gun. Instead of tapping it into her Eva's power source, she plugged it directly into a heavy ground line that ran back to the line of transformers and capacitors behind her and moved cautiously, keeping the mountainside between her and the Angel. He could see it through some of the other cameras, a shining beacon above the city, a beam of light diving from its lowest point into the streets below.
Toji watched Rei as she paced back and forth, tail twitching behind her, rubbing her arms. Ever since she had her weird nightmare she'd been on her feet, pacing restlessly. The lights had all gone off like before, but even the emergency lighting outside was out. The whole city was dark, except for the glow of the thing. He'd only looked at it once, and that was enough. It had an elemental wrongness to it, like the angles of its flat, glassy planes didn't fit together quite the right way.
These things were supposed to be aliens or something, but this one didn't even look alive. It reminded him of some kind of a machine, something somebody made. It didn't look like it grew somewhere, that was for sure. Toji found himself on his feet, his hands thrust in his pockets, pacing behind the couch.
"You are upset," said Rei.
"We should be in the shelter," said Toji. "You saw what that thing did."
"We are not safe there," Rei said, softly. "There is nowhere safe."
"What are they, Rei? Do you know?"
She shook her head. "I was told only what I needed to know to operate Unit Zero. Center the target, pull the switch."
Toji sighed. Kensuke probably would have killed for ten minutes alone with Rei to ask all kinds of questions -and stare at her, he was fully prepared to admit that she was pretty now- but Toji didn't care about any of that.
"I wish they'd just go away," he said.
Rei looked at him blankly and rubbed her arms against a phantom chill.
"Don't you?"
She shrugged. "I would have no purpose. Piloting Eva is what I am for."
Toji scratched his head. "What if it wasn't?"
Rei shook her head. "I have never thought about that before."
"Maybe you should."
She looked at him for a second, and she was as impenetrable as ever, her red eyes inscrutable.
"I can't stand this anymore," said Toji, striding for the door. "I have to get out of here. How long is this going to take?"
Rei caught his arm. "We should not-"
Toji sighed. "I wish I could get to the hospital."
Rei's tail swept back and forth. "Perhaps you could."
"Yeah?"
"I remember where it is."
"You mean you could do your thing?"
She nodded.
"How would we get inside?"
She looked off for a moment. "Do you remember your sister's room number?"
"Yeah, I-"
"Stay close."
Before he could protest, she stepped up to him and put her arms around his waist. He had a brief flash of the warmth of her pressed against him, and the way she smelled of soap. Then a reverberating thump filled his ears and the stench of rotten eggs slid up his nose, making him sputter. For a moment he had an odd sensation of floating, and saw the ground rushing up to meet them.
"Oh shit!" Toji shouted.
"Room number," Rei said in his ear, calmly.
"303!" Toji shouted, "303-"
Another thump, more rotten eggs. Rei let go of him and stumbled, and it took him an instant to find his footing on the slipper linoleum floor of the hospital room. Rei swayed and leaned against the wall and he rushed to her side, resting his hands on her hips to steady her. She sat down in the little chair by the bed.
Sakura lay on her bed, chest rising falling gently as she lay in her deep sleep. He could barely see her, as the room was lit only by her monitors. The hospital must have been on low power mode, too. He pushed the door to the room shut and slid a chair in front of it, just in case. Rei was breathing hard and she didn't look like she'd be up to a quick getaway.
"Are you okay?" he whispered.
She nodded, but she looked pale, if that were even possible. Toji turned to Sakura. She lay slightly askew, the cast on her leg lifted up in a set of pulleys, her head turned to one side. He adjusted the oxygen line running under her nose, so it didn't dig into her skin. Her eyes slid back and forth under her eyelids, as if she were dreaming. She looked so small, like when they were little kids, swaddled in blankets and swallowed up by the big hospital bed. He pushed the hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear.
"Hey," he whispered. "I was worried about you. I know it's not visiting hours, but I thought you could use some company."
Rei wobbled over to the bed and leaned on the rail. "Why do you speak to her?"
Toji looked at her for a second, jaw set, and blew out a breath. She didn't know better.
"She can hear me."
Rei look at Sakura for a second. "Why do you think that?"
"I just do," said Toji. "We were born together. She's all I have left of my Mom. We've always been together."
Rei nodded. Gingerly, she touched Sakura's hand.
"Hello. I am Rei. Thank you for your clothes."
Toji sighed. "This is my friend, Rei. She's in trouble, so I let her stay with us. She's borrowed some of your stuff. I hope you don't mind."
"She looks like you," said Rei. "I am surprised. I would think a female version of you would be less pleasant to look at."
Toji eyed her for a second. "Did you just make a joke?"
"Was it bad? I am sorry."
He sighed. "You tried."
"I did mean to imply you are unpleasant to look at."
He glanced at her, and could swear her cheeks had colored a bit. Was she flirting with him?
Sakura moaned softly and rolled her head a little. Toji's heart leapt for a second, but she settled back into her sleep without waking.
"The doctors said that would happen," said Toji. "Some kind of spasm or something. She's not waking up."
"She will," said Rei.
"You don't have to say that."
Rei put her hand on top of his. "She will."
Asuka waited while the UI and HUD loaded in her helmet, flexing her hands as she stared at the controls. She stared through Unit Two's eyes and packed mud, and winced when she heard a peel of thunder, amplified by the Eva's systems. She turned slightly from side to side, trying to work a kink out of her neck. The restraint on the helmet made impossible, and thinking about it made it even worse. She ground her teeth and realized she could already feel the Eva's limbs. Synch was surprisingly smooth this time.
Shifting her hands under her body, she stood up from the carrier-crawler and looked around. The gun emplacement was set up, the hastily repaired fusion gun resting on a cobbled together rest made up of old train cars and welded metal plating. Rain was starting to fall around her, and she saw moisture sliding down the Eva's eyepieces, and blinked furiously for a second.
"Doesn't this thing have windshield wipers?" she snapped.
"Sorry," said Ibuki. "We never really planned on operating in the rain. It shouldn't affect the targeting linkup."
Asuka nodded. It didn't matter. She technically didn't even need to see the target. The reticle just had to be lined up, and the supercomputers would do the rest, calculating the exact angle. The Angel itself lay just out of view, its hazy purple glow lighting the night sky like a sun never to rise. She stepped towards the emplacement, glancing at Shinji. He grimaced around his bandages and caught her eye for a moment, and nodded. Unit One repeated the gesture, the Eva standing a few hundred kilometers away. Neither of them would step into view until the last moment.
"Power status?"
"Capacitors charged," said Ibuki. "The gun's coolant system reads all green. We're two minutes ahead of schedule."
"Ready to commence operation," said Asuka, striding towards the gun. The Evangelion's foot slid in the mud a little, and she grimaced from the jolt that ran up her phantom spine.
As she knelt, she cursed silently to herself. She was going to get mud all over the fresh finish on the leg joints. She crouched the Eva down and waited for Shinji to stride up behind her, carrying his shield in front of him. He moved just ahead of her and dropped the Eva into a kneeling position, grunting loud enough for her to hear over the comm as he did. He angled the shield slightly, digging the base into the mountainside, holding it so she would fire the gun just past his side.
He faced her on her monitor and nodded.
Asuka settled into position, fitting the gun to her shoulder. It was already wired up, a long, heavy cable trailing around the side of the mountain to the capacitor banks on the other side. When it connected she saw the power readout and gasped. Normally, as the gun locked into her shoulder, the HUD would tell her how many bursts she could fire without draining her battery, but the power reading went to a series of pound signs and just flashed, until she dismissed it.
"Ready. Begin target protocol."
The triangular reticle floated in front of her. A circular icon appeared and began to sweep around in lazy circles as the computers finished the calculations. It settled over the Angel, resting atop the blazing, angular form of the beast's body. She breathed out, rather absurdly given that she wasn't actually touching the gun, and tugged on the yoke. The reticle shifted a bit and she slowly moved it in line with the firing solution until they mated and turned blue, signally her to fire.
"Fire."
She pulled the trigger. The gun spun up, shaking her teeth, and steam burst from the length of the barrel as the heat easily overwhelmed the onboard coolant systems. The gun rocked back and ground her knee and foot into the mud, and a miniature sun erupted from the end of the barrel, sending a wash of heat and pressure back over her. Shinji shifted, squaring his Eva, putting his damaged arm against the shield.
"Brace for impact!" Ibuki cried.
The Angel lifted up, pulling its drill from the ground, bobbing slightly in the air. It turned, its body shifting, the blaze growing to a newborn sun and then more focused, sweeping over the land like a searchlight. As it slid towards the mountainside there was an ear-splitting shriek and the sound grew unbearable as the light bore down on her, and the heavens lit up in reply. She glanced up to see cloud-to-cloud lightning jumping overhead just as the Angel's beam hit Shinji's shield.
It rolled him backwards, and the shield went white hot in an instant, the edges folding like soft candle wax. He put his wounded arm out and she saw the helmet cam view of his face in front of her, saw him screaming through shocked gasps of pain as he tried to keep the beam upright.
The blast cut through the fusion projectile and where they met, her shot skimmed up and over and clipped one of the far mountains, shearing the top of in a single, explosive blast that sent rolling flames and molten rock spewing towards the Ashii lakes. Horrified, Asuka jammed on the control, flooding more coolant into her barrel. The LCL was beginning to heat and the EVA was bleating warnings at her.
"Abort!" Ibuki shouted, "Abort!"
"We…" Shinji grunted, "Can't."
"Abort!" Ibuki screamed. "The power coupling-"
"The armor layers… breached," Shinji gasped, speaking to her. "Kill it!"
Asuka clenched her teeth and forced herself back into firing position. The Eva was screaming, phantom pain lacing through her muscles. In a moment of singular, eerie calm, she realized that this must be what burning felt like. It was singularly unpleasant. She felt soft, dreamy, like everything was slow. The gun was cooling down, ready to fire another burst. There was some kind of warning flashing on her screen, but she ignored it. She had to fire. She started up the fire control calculations again.
Shinji turned slightly from her. Something was happening to him. His eyes were glowing, and his Eva was getting up.
"We have a main bus undervolt," Hyuga shouted, "Power coupling three has opened. We have to go the close it before she can fire again."
Commander Ikari stared dumbly at the feed from the battle line, his eyes locked on Unit One. His mouth worked silently. Summers brushed past him, making him sway on her feet, and leaned over the techs. Maya lurched away from her, staring at the dozen alarms going off at her station.
"If she fires the gun again, it's going to explode," said Maya, "and she only has a third of the power. We're not going to make it."
Maya glanced at the readouts. "I'm getting really weird readings from Unit One."
"What the fuck," Aoba snapped, his curse cutting through the din. "I'm reading some kind of… magnetic distortion. I…"
"EMP!" Hyuga shouted, just before everything went dark.
The lights, the monitors, everything shut off at once with a heavy, thunk, followed by screams and confused orders being shouted from every direction.
"Get the backups online," Summers snapped, pounding her fist into the console. "These systems are supposed to be shielded."
Another thump rolled through the forward command bunker. Maya looked out the narrow slid window and saw flashes, and stood up.
"That coupling is arcing. It's going to blow."
"Somebody has to get out there and close it," said Hyuga, jumping to his feet. "I'm going."
"Wait," said Maya, "If she fires the gun while you're outside…"
He didn't hear her over the shouting. She got up and followed him. When the fusion cannon fired, it pumped out serious gamma radiation. With this much power running through it… she got up, and shrugged out from Summers' grasp, running after him. Aoba stared at them for a second and then slid over, working all three stations by himself. Maya tried to drag Hyuga back, but he was already running out the door.
Aoba shouted something. "I'm a tracking a high speed, high energy object heading towards us from the upper atmosphere!"
"What?" Summers barked. "What is it? A meteor?"
"I don't think so. It's speeding up."
Maya ignored it all and ran outside. Hyuga tugged on a pair of heavy rubber gloves and ran up the rickety metal steps. As crude as it sounded, there was simply a big lever that closed the connection. Hyuga grabbed it and threw himself into turning it, wrenching it, hard. Maya barely had the presence of mind to pull on gloves before she grabbed it alongside him and pushed.
"Get back inside!" he screamed.
"If you can't close it we're all dead!" Maya shouted back, pushing alongside him, shoulder to shoulder. The cable, much larger than either of them, shifted slightly.
Maya screamed as she pushed, closing her eyes and digging her heels into the diamond plate under her feet. She pushed and pushed, and when she opened them again the cable picked up enough momentum to slam shut, the force of it rocking them both on their feet. She stumbled, and looked up to see the glow from the cannon spinning up.
"We have to get back inside," Hyuga snapped, pulling her.
They weren't going to make it. The door had auto-sealed behind them. Her feet slipped in the mud. Hyuga yelped and his feet went out from under him, sending up a splash of mud as he landed on his face. He crawled to his feet, leaving his glasses behind, and got up, Maya tugging on his shoulder. She looked up in time to see the flash as the cannon went off, the burst loosed from the end of the barrel. It lit the night sky like a second sun, casting the long low shadows of the Evas over the muddied mountain.
On pure instinct, she pushed Hyuga out of the way, and he rolled into one of the cable trenches. He looked up in horror and threw his hand up to meet her, but she was too late and pure light rolled through her, and she neither saw nor heard nor felt, but she was sure she was screaming.
Asuka felt dreamy, like floating. She lined up the reticle, not worried about the blinking warning about her power supply, and pulled the trigger, holding it while the gun spun up. It felt different this time, and some dull part of her worried over that as she held it true, blissfully cool after the Angel's beam cut out. It had gone back to drilling, and Shinji was screaming, grunting about armor breaches. She spared him a sidelong glance, and saw the Eva had stood up.
Lightning arced up and down its body, between its legs and shoulder pylons, and he'd tossed the shield, now a slagged mound of orange-hot goop. His eyes had gone white and his mouth refused to close, and his jaw was shaking as if he was cold. They had no shield, no protection. She had to kill it now, or they would both die. The gun fired.
The blast tore out of the gun, arcing across the landscape towards the Angel. The creature rose up again, shrieking, turning, its horrid sound making the very air quiver, and the bolt this time struck true. It tore through the creature's body and burst when it hit the air on the other side with a molten flash that light the night, heat and flame rolling over its perfectly smooth body. The Angel bobbed, listed.
Then, slowly, it rose up and the carved channel through its body healed, closing with a kind of crystalline groan. Asuka looked down and realized that the gun had melted in her hands, the barrel taking on a pathetic droop, still glowing and screaming. This was it. They were all dead. The beam came.
Shinji screamed at the top of his lungs, a loud gurgling shriek-roar that poured out of his mouth like thunder, turned tinny in her helmet speakers. Unit One stood up and blazed, light pouring out of the joints in her armor. All of Asuka's instruments went wild, and she heard scratchy bleating from the comms system- someone was yelling about electromagnetic pulses. Thunder rolled overhead as the sky lit up, a hundred lances of lighting leaping from cloud to cloud, the sound blurring together into a single, punishing rumble.
The beam from the Angels swept across the landscape, blazing so bright it washed all the color out of the world, left a purple afterimage in her vision. It struck empty air a thousand meters from the mountain and folded out, the light rolling along an invisible barrier. Shinji put the Eva's hand out, its fingers trembling from stretching, and took a step forward. Light poured out of his eyes, and the image of him on her HUD began to flicker and distort wildly, then winked out.
"What's happening?" Asuka screamed, "What is that? Is it the AT-Field?"
Someone, one of the techs, a man, called back to her. "It's not an AT-Field! It's some kind of magnetic distortion."
She couldn't see him, but she could hear him screaming.
"It's killing him!"
"There's nothing we can do. The Eva is rejecting the shutdown commands."
Asuka forced Unit Two to stand, ignoring the screaming of her joints. She could feel the Eva's heart pounding as she moved, trying to step closer to him. Unit One's helmet plating twisted and a section of wrenched free and peeled off, twisting on invisible currents of magnetic force. Flashing explosions rippled through the capacitors as the installation and the city below were bathed in darkness. The Angel's shriek grew to an ear-piercing roar and she felt a sting in her ear drums. Frantic, she pulled at her helmet and finally yanked it off, tossing it away before her ear drums burst, gagging and choking as the LCL flooded around her.
The Angel dumped all its power into the blast, and the barrier, whatever it was, began to peel back, began to fold. Asuka looked at it, the light stinging her eyes.
"Mama," she said.
Thunder. A peal of thunder boomed in her ears, and she felt it in her chest and realized with a start that the Eva felt it too, the sound rolling over the landscape, oppressive. The clouds overhead tore open, a circle of vapor rolling back as a brilliant light streaked out of the sky. She followed it with her eyes for a bare second before it slammed down into the Angel's glow and there was a bursting eruption of plating and earth as whatever it was tore straight through the Angel, and straight through armored shell of the Geofront into the cavern below.
The light from the Angel winked out, like throwing a switch. Asuka stared, dumbstruck. The Angel's body listed, tilting lazily to the side and something about it changed, the color shifted, losing its luster like glass growing dull from in age. In its center there was an expanding flower of red- blood. It tiled and tilted as it slid out of the sky and landed with a great ringing clash, a profusion of cracks gliding through its structure, shattering as it crashed into the ground. The livid red blood poured out of the cracks pouring down the city street. The slashing rain just ended, as if a great faucet had been shut off.
Unit One stumbled and Asuka rushed to Shinji's side, grunting as the bulk of the Eva slammed against her. She fell with him, rolling the other Unit onto its back, and brought hers into a crouch before she pulled the emergency decouple and broke synchronization. She clambered out of the hatch and breathed the too-hot, cloying night air as the rush of LCL threatened to tear her out of it and send her falling into space. She grabbed Unit One's shoulder pylon and clenched her teeth as she swung over empty air and slid clumsily down the Eva's neck towards the plug, her bile rising in her throat.
She crawled on all fours to the plug and when the cover over the emergency eject refused to budge, she focused and a tight beam of heat from her fingertip sliced through it. She grabbed the handle and yanked, putting her legs into it, and the plug slammed out, bouncing as it came to a stop. The plug hatch was too hot, melting the plugsuit to her skin. She pulled her hands back, flash-melted it from her hands, and grabbed the hatch with her bare skin and turned, wrenching with her entire body. It finally fell open.
Shinji lay across the seat. He'd torn the yoke free of the control panel, or so she thought- it looked almost like it had melted, twisted up into a strange, almost organic arrangement of metal. Everything in the plug was fried. Shinji's head had torn loose from the safety hardness and lolled to the side. She gingerly undid the clasps and slid it free.
His upper lip was crusted with blood and his eyes were lidded, but he was breathing. His eyes fluttered open and he turned to her, coughing slightly.
"Ow," he said.
Shinji sat on the medic's gurney for a while, letting them re-bandage his wounds and daub the dried blood from his upper lip. He desperately wanted a shower and a change, and he wanted to go home. What he didn't want was to deal with was Summers, who walked up to him easy as she pleased, throwing her coal black hair over her shoulder. She cocked her hip to the side and looked him up and down.
"That was quite the performance."
"Go to hell," said Shinji.
"I must admit, I'm impressed. Seeing you unlock your potential is so splendid. You have so much to offer the world, Shinji. So much more than you realize."
He looked at the medics. "Would you excuse us?"
The two men looked at him, at Summers, and each other, and backed off, making themselves scarce. Shinji lifted his hands slightly and flexed his fists, and the doors of the ambulance behind him folded together like curling petals, letting out a low, metallic groan.
"I'm not in the mood."
Summers sighed. "What is it with you and the property destruction? Someone has to pay for that."
"I'm not joking," said Shinji. "Get out of my sight. Right now."
She leaned close to him. She smelled of perfume and lavender soap and deodorant, but there was something wrong about her, and her breath was cold on his ear. "Don't test me, boy. Not all of us like to show off."
She leaned back, satisfied with herself.
"What did I tell you?" Asuka hissed.
Summers looked over her shoulder. Asuka stood with her arms folded under her breasts, her hair twisting on invisible currents of air as a faint glow crackled around her eyes. The temperature of the night air rose noticeably, like standing in front of a campfire that had been built up too high.
"I have plans for you, too, Princess," said Summers. "Neither one of you realizes how important you are. Two petulant children are not going to-"
Asuka snapped her fingers and a line of brilliant light cracked through the air and a singed lock of Summers' hair wafted to the ground, leaving behind the smell of ozone and burnt hair. Asuka stuck her bare hand under her armpit again and gave the older woman her best ten thousand watt glare.
Summers clenched her teeth. "How dare you. My stylist is going to murder me."
"You are such a girl," Asuka said, coldly. "In my father's name, I command you to leave us. Defy me and answer to von Doom."
Summers grinned a shark grin and stalked off, throwing her hair over her shoulder again. Shinji could have sworn it was as thick as before. Asuka rushed to his side, her own tresses settling back around her shoulders as the heat vanished from the air.
"Are you well?"
"No," Shinji sighed. "How about you?"
"Nothing I cannot handle. There are staff cars waiting for us, and the forward command center has showers set up."
Shinji nodded. Asuka nodded back, rather gravely, and disappeared into the night air. Shinji got up, sighing, and made his way up to the bunker. The promised shower was there, and stripping off his plugsuit felt like being skinned alive, but he was glad to be free of it. He put on a spare school uniform, except for the jacket, and left the shirt untucked. When he limped back down the stairs, he expected to run into his father, but Gendo was nowhere in evidence. Shinji waited a bit, then angrily dipped into the car and pulled the door shut behind him. The driver glanced at him in the mirror.
"Where to, sir? Home?"
"No," Shinji said, flatly. "Drive. I'll tell you where to go."
The driver shrugged, and Shinji put all the windows down. This late at night there was a chill, and the air smelled like ozone and mud, but he wanted to be cool. The memory of cooking alive in the plug made him shudder as he sank back into the seat, his wet hair mercifully cool in a mop on his scalp.
He dozed off before the car reached the city.
"Hey," Shinji said, yawning. "Will you do me a favor?"
"Sure," said the driver.
"If I ask you to drop me somewhere, can you keep it to yourself?"
The driver looked at him. "I've got kids."
"I'm sorry," said Shinji. "Just… I'll tell you where to stop, and walk from there."
"No, sir," said the driver. "I mean, I've got kids. I've got your back."
Shinji nodded in relief, and gave the driver the address for Hikari's apartment building. The rest of the ride was quiet enough, Shinji staring out the windows at the distant wreckage of the Angel's body and the stars, and the darkness slowly dying as the lights came back on as power was restored. When the limo pulled up to her building, Shinji got out, gave the driver a nod, and limped up the steps. He hit the buzzer.
Hikari's older sister answered. "Hello? Hikari?"
"It's Shinji."
Silence.
The door thumped. He opened it and headed for the elevator. When he turned, he saw Hikari running up the steps behind him. He held the door for her and she threw her arms around him. He winced, his skin still tender from phantom burns.
"Are you okay?" she said. "I saw lights and explosions and I was so scared! What was that thing?"
"I'm fine, and I don't know," said Shinji. "Nobody tells me anything."
They stepped into the elevator.
"What are you doing here?"
"I… it's complicated."
Hikari looked at him for a second, then kissed him as the doors closed, her lips gently brushing over his. He closed his eyes and drew in her scent and they both stood there awkwardly until the doors opened and she led him out into the hall, looking around. When they neared the door to her apartment, it flew open.
"Where-" Kodama snapped, then grabbed Hikari in a fierce hug.
"I'm sorry," Hikari pleaded. "I didn't mean to get separated from you."
"Don't do that again," said Kodama. "I have to see if I can get Dad on the phone. He's stuck at work. They've called everybody in for some kind of emergency procedure."
Shinji blinked. He'd never heard of any emergency procedure.
Kodama looked at him. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you at home?"
"I can't go home," said Shinji. "It's complicated."
Kodama looked at him, half appraising, half considering. After what felt like forever she said, "Come inside. Are you hungry?"
Mari's phone rang. A moment later, the matrons were opening the shelter doors. She stood up and disentangled herself from the crowd, lifting the phone to the side of her head. Her mutation made phones awkward, so she usually used the speakerphone, but she didn't want to take a call from Asuka that way while others could hear them.
"Hello, kitten," said Asuka.
"Princess?" said Mari.
"I'm outside," said Asuka. "Come get me."
Mari blinked. Asuka never called her 'kitten'. That didn't sound like her.
"Are you okay? Did you hit your head or anything?"
"A little. A few cuts and bruises. I could use someone to lick my wounds."
Mari blinked, and pulled her lower lip under her fangs. "Okay, I'm coming."
She danced up the stairs to the first floor of the dorms and jogged outside. Other than a few students stretching their legs in the night air, there was no one around. She looked around and popped her claws with a flick of her fingers as she realized she couldn't smell Asuka.
Two iron hot pokers slammed into her back and a jolt of electricity ran through her body. She smelled burning flesh and writhed in pain, every muscle clenching at once, and rolled on the sidewalk. Her claws found purchase, sliced deep furrows in the concrete, and swept the air. She flailed and bucked until her vision fuzzed and she lay on the sidewalk, breathing hard. She felt her body knitting back together, repairing the burns, and then they hit her again, another jolt making her clench so hard her teeth cracked against one another, sending red hot shooters of pain through her skull. She lay on the ground again, wisps of smoke curling up from her fingers.
A chalk-pale woman with red eyes stood over her. Mari got up on her knees and feebly swiped at her with her claws, but hit nothing but air.
"I apologize, but this is a psychic projection. You can't actually harm me. Calm down, or I'm going to have to have my men shoot you."
"Fuck… you…" Mari rasped, pushing on her hands and knees.
She didn't hear the shots before they hit, three burning shards that punched through her guts and knocked her off her feet. She clutched her stomach and retched, trying feebly to dig out the bullets before her healing factor sealed them in her body. The pale skinned woman looked down at her.
"I have your princess, little cat. The more you fight, the more I'm going to have to punish her."
Two men grabbed her under the arms and pulled her up, dragging her towards a van. Someone was shouting, and she saw men in uniforms herding the students back towards the dorm. The evacuation alarm sounded, piercing and shrill in her superhuman hearing. She twitched at the sound, unable to muster the strength to shield her ears. She felt her strength coming back, and started to stand up. One of the man rammed a blade through her back, and she felt it slide through her and jut out beneath her chest and the strength went out of her legs as he yanked it back out.
"This can stop," said the pale woman. "Calm down and let us bring you in. It's for your own good. A healing factor like yours shouldn't be wasted."
"I'll k-kill you," Mari hissed, but they dragged her onto a gurney and dropped chains over her body. One of them bowed over her with a knife and cut at the healing skin of her stomach, flicking the bullets out with the tip of his blade.
"If you don't calm down, I'm going to have to have them sedate you."
"Won't," Mari rasped, "Work."
"Oh, normal tranquilizers won't, I know. These men have enough Thorazine to kill an elephant."
Mari thrashed against her bonds. If she could reach them with her claws, she might have a chance. One of her captors jammed a needle in her shoulder and rammed the plunger down, and she felt the burn as it delivered its contents into her bloodstream. She struggled more, but she suddenly felt weighty, heavy. It flowed down her arm and into her chest, and her heart skipped a beat, slowing, slowing.
Her head lolled to the side, and the pale woman fuzzed, becoming transparent. She touched Mari's cheek and it felt real enough, but cold, like a lizard's skin. Mari jerked, trying to force her eyes open, but she felt like a crushing weight was sinking through her chest.
"Such a pretty one, too. Don't you worry, little cat. Be a good girl, and I'll be the best mother you've ever had."
Mari spat at the air, and her eyes rolled back in her head and darkness swept in from everywhere to lay on her like a blanket.
Asuka stepped into the night air, bristling. Her phone was beginning to annoy her, and the probability of it melting had dramatically increased each time her call to Mari failed to go through. She stuffed it in her pocket as she stepped into the staff car and sank into the plush seat, blowing her loose wet locks out of her eyes. The partition between the passenger compartment and the driver rolled down.
"Take me back to the Academy," Asuka snapped.
"I don't think so."
Asuka sat up.
Summers sat in the front seat. She turned and draped her arm over the partition. "I'm afraid you and I have an appointment, Princess."
Asuka sat up, feeling the heat build within her, mirroring her rage. "I am not amused."
"You should be flattered. Of all my new pets, you're the most dangerous. I decided to handle you personally."
Asuka sat up, and then slammed back into the seat. A wave of pressure rolled over her body, as though a great weight had dropped into her lap. Summers' grin widened, and her eyes changed, the red of her irises expanding out until there was no white left. Asuka clenched her teeth and readied herself to melt the car to slag, but an ice cold railroad spike rammed into her skull and her body was suddenly a distant memory as she squirmed in the seat. It was like falling into deep water, and then she wasn't in the car anymore.
She ran, feeling cold, polished stone under her bare feet. Everything seemed huge, even moreso than normal in Castle von Doom. She heard someone chasing after her, naked heels slapping on the stone floor.
"Come back, Asuka," a familiar voice called. "I need you."
Terror spiked through her, like icewater running down her spine, and she ran. She nearly tripped over her nightgown, picked herself up, and sprinted, but the corridor had no end. She looked over her shoulder and saw the woman walking down the hall, tall and stiff-backed, her head hanging in shame, long red-gold hair hiding her face. Asuka's chest clenched and she broke into a full sprint, screaming, but the figure was always just behind her.
She heard Summer's voice. There is nothing you can hide from me.
Her foot went out from under her and she went down hard, a jolt from her palms running up her arms. She turned to see the thing in the nightgown stumbling towards her, reaching out with pale hands flecked with graveyard dirt. Asuka started to rise, but cold fingers dug into her shoulders. Hollow eye sockets stared out from filthy red hair into her own, and she screamed, and screamed, and screamed.
Ritsuko sat at her desk, waiting as the lights came back on with a heavy thunk and the monitors all around her rolled back to life, green screens flashing. She wasted no time restoring her MAGI instance, getting the system back up and running so she could go through Summers' files. She rubbed her hands at the thought, barely glancing at the MAGI feeds as she brought up her own terminal. She jammed the thumb drive in as soon as she could and started sifting through it.
There was so much that exploring it properly would take hours. She had thousands of files in a folder marked SPECIMENS, another marked BLOODLINES, but she was most interested in the video feeds that Summers had deleted, and the data from the Unit Zero activation tests. It was all here, and Ritsuko was nearly salivating. That vile bitch's secrets were all laid bare before her, and the feeling made her ecstatic. She looked at the urn.
"Almost there, Mom. I know this is connected somehow, I-"
There was a series of video clips in Summers' files, and the file names matched the MAGI's security logs. Trembling, she opened the first, and blinked. It was her lab, about a week before Mother was killed. Ritsuko watched Naoko bustling about in the lab, drinking coffee and chatting with Maya. Ritsuko would have been at the conference at that time. The file was totally innocuous, just Ritsuko and Maya talking about something.
Until Maya left.
Naoko sat down and opened the very same terminal Ritsuko was using. Ritsuko couldn't see what she was doing, but she looked shocked. She went over whatever it was again. Ritsuko turned the sound up and listened as Naoko picked up a voice recorder and spoke into it.
"It's all here… I was right all along. Someone tampered with the system. Ikari's death was no accident, but I don't… Gendo would never harm her, and he doesn't have the knowhow anyway. Fuyutsuki is madly in love with her. I would suspect Kyoko, but she'd been in Latveria for six months and these settings were checked over by Ikari herself an hour before the test, so someone must have tampered with it after she configured the experiment. Besides, I don't think Kyoko is that much of a bitch, no matter how she behaves. I don't know who else would…"
Summers burst into the room, striding across the screen. "Akagi."
"What are you doing here?" said Naoko.
Summers didn't answer. Instead, she squared herself up and Naoko's jaw drooped, and her eyes went slack.
"I see," said Summers. "Forget I was here."
"I forget you were here," Naoko slurred, almost falling out of her chair.
Ritsuko stared, open-mouthed. She started when she noticed Summers' reflection in the window behind the computers. Her eyes were red, all red, and there was some kind of red crystal embedded in her skull just below her hairline. It sank in and her eyes returned to normal as she stalked out. Naoko sat for a moment, then sat up, blinking.
Ritsuko looked over the files. She saw the one from the night of her mother's death and swallowed, hard. The code suggested that it came from the cameras in the command center, which was where she died from the fall. Ritsuko's fingers hovered over the touchpad until she forced herself to tap it and open the file.
Naoko was fiddling with one of the consoles, cursing quietly to herself as she lifted up one of the panels to get at the wiring underneath, probably worried about an upcoming test. The system would have needed it. She sighed, and pulled out her phone. Ritsuko listened, verbatim, to the message she'd heard when she returned to Tokyo-3. Naoko looked around nervously, then froze. Ritsuko saw her mouth No, then start shouting at the shrill, laughing voice that taunted her. She backed towards the railing and Ritsuko's heart leapt into her throat, as if she could reach through the screen and catch her. She held the sides of the monitor, the plastic creaking under her grasp.
No. It couldn't be.
Ritsuko watched the Green Goblin step into view. A chill ran up her spine, and tears formed on her cheeks. Some lunatic in a costume had murder her mother. Naoko dropped the phone and was shouting, screaming for help. The Goblin's voice was light, lilting, sarcastic.
"You killed Yui Ikari."
"I didn't do it!" she shouted, struggling as the Goblin seized her by the hair. He was so strong, so fast, and laughing, always laughing, shrill and high, dragging her out of the command center.
"What the hell?" Ritsuko sobbed. "Where…"
The activation test. There was footage from Unit Zero's plug. A chill went up her spine. It was nothing at first- just an unmoving view of the inside of the plug. Then, the door yanked open and Naoko fell inside. Her hair was matted with blood and she had a black eye. She landed hard, sprawled over the too-small, teenage sized seat, and immediately launched herself at the door as it slammed shut. LCL flooded in around her.
Ritsuko paled. No suit, no helmet, nothing. The fluid rose around her.
"I didn't do it!" she moaned, tugging on the hatch. "Please, it wasn't me!"
Ritsuko covered her mouth. Naoko floated in the LCL, trying to get her bearings. She watched her mother fight to hold in her breath until it bubbled out of her mouth and the LCL rushed in. She hacked and coughed, clutching at her chest, then jerked.
"Oh," Ritsuko whispered, "Oh no."
They were trying to synchronize her. Naoko jerked, spasming as her body tried to deal with the sudden intrusion of nervous signals from the Eva. Without it calibrated for her, without a plugsuit, it must have felt like she was dipped into boiling water. She screamed, bubbling the LCL around her face as she pounded on the wall of the entry plug. Ritsuko desperately wanted to turn it off, but she had to watch. She had to see.
"Let me out!" Naoko pleaded, "You can't do this! Don't do this to me!"
Ritsuko felt like she was going to throw up.
"For God's sake! Let me out! It hurts, let me out!"
Naoko jerked, her body went rigid, and then she went still, and the Eva shut down.
"Son of a bitch," Ritsuko hissed, and clenched her fists. She pounded them on the table. Her phone rang.
"What the hell do you want?" she said, snapping it to her ear.
"I, uh, this is Aoba."
"Get on with it."
"The operation…" he drew in a deep breath, "Was a success."
"Fine," Ritsuko snapped, "Whatever. Have Maya-"
"She's gone."
"What?" said Ritsuko, feeling her stomach sinking into the floor. "What do you mean?"
"She and Hyuga got caught outside while the gun was being fired. Hyuga's in surgery now, he should be okay. We… we can't find Maya. She's just gone."
"Oh my God," Ritsuko sobbed, squeezing the phone.
"I…" Aoba started. "We're starting the recovery. I'll keep you posted."
"What were they doing out there?"
"There was a fault in one of the couplings. Summers…"
Ritsuko shrieked at the top of her lungs and hurled the phone into the wall. It shattered, bits of plastic and electronic guts flying everywhere, and she slammed her fists into the table until they hurt, sobbing. Not Maya, too.
There was a knock at her door. She froze.
"Who is it?"
"Ritsuko," a thin voice said, "Please."
Slowly, haltingly, she opened the door. Someone pushed in; someone in a Nerv uniform with a lab coat pulled over her head rushed into the room and plopped into one of the chairs, sobbing.
"Help me."
"Hey," Ritsuko said, trying to keep her voice even. "Who…"
The lab coat slid to the floor. Maya sat in the seat, sobbing, staring at Ritsuko with big, pleading eyes. Her irises were yellow, almost gold, and slitted, the way a cat's are. Her skin was a bright green, and for a moment, Ritsuko thought she saw freckles, but the dark spots under her eyes were scales, fine, almost reptilian ones that spotted her cheeks. She clutched at her too-small uniform, which was torn and strained over her chest; it had popped open over her stomach and revealed a scaly, green midriff. Her hair had grown out a little and turned a dark green, and her hands were covered in scales, each tipped in a claw. Tears flowed freely over her cheeks, dripping from her chin.
"What's happening to me?"
"He can stay here tonight," Kodama snapped, sticking a finger in Hikari's face. "Father would not approve of this."
"I didn't know," Hikari whispered back, glancing at the living room, where Shinji sat on the couch with his head on his hands. "What is he supposed to do? Go home?"
"Hikari-"
"You heard what he told you. That woman in his house."
Kodama, flustered, clenched her fists. "Frankly, I think he's overreacting. How long has his mother been gone?"
Hikari's eyes widened. "What?"
Kodama started. "I…"
"How can you say that?" said Hikari. "You know how it feels."
"This is cute, Hikari, but I don't want you to get hurt."
Kodama spun on her heels and disappeared into her bedroom. Hikari glanced over her shoulder. She needed a shower and sleep, but she ducked into her room pulled on some old sleeping clothes and walked towards the living room. Kodama popped out of her bedroom.
"He's a guest in our house but you are not sleeping with him, am I clear? He's on the couch."
Hikari looked at her for a second, before she disappeared into her room again. Sighing, Hikari walked into the living room and dropped on the couch next to him. He lifted his head up and folded his hands between his knees.
"What am I supposed to do?"
Gingerly, she put her hand on his back. "I don't know, but we'll figure something out. You should get some sleep."
"I'm not tired," he said.
"It's almost four in the morning," said Hikari, glancing at the clock.
"Don't they cancel school after attacks?" said Shinji, yawning.
"Yeah, but still…"
"Okay," I said. "I'm on the couch, huh?"
"Yeah," said Hikari. "Kodama's just worried about me, that's all."
"I wish I had a sister," Shinji said, absently.
Hikari shifted a little closer to him, and he sort of fell against her, their breath mingling. She moved closer to him and his head tilted and their lips met, and she took his hands in hers. She only meant to kiss him goodnight but the kiss drew out and deepened. His kisses were just like him- he mashed his lips into hers, realized he was coming on too strong, pulled back, and then settled into it until it was just right. Hikari realized her hands were on his back, sliding up under his shirt, and her eyes fluttered open. He stared at her for a second, but she pushed into him, lowering him back onto the couch until she lay on top of him.
She felt an electric flutter as his hand settled on her hip and dragged slowly upwards, pulling at the loose fabric of her shirt until it was under it, resting on her bare skin. She settled her weight on him and kissed him again and his arms were around her waist, as if he was afraid to move his hands any higher, but then his hand slid up her back and he pulled her close to him, and she felt very warm. Their legs tangled together, and she smelled the soap on him.
She pulled back. "I should-"
Her eyes flew open. When she felt the buzz at the back of her neck she thought it would be Kodama sneaking into the room to catch them, but it intensified, grew from a faint twinge to almost pain, from every direction at once. The front door to the apartment caved in, the wood shredded by a heavy black cylinder, a battering ram, and she heard muffled shouting. She was already moving, clambering up the couch, pushing Shinji down with her foot as he tried to get up. He moved in slow motion, his hair twisting like it was underwater. Everything slowed as she watched the ram draw back and a clutch of black-suited men taking agonizingly slow steps into her home.
She heard a tinkle of crashing glass and something rolled in through the window and bounced against the couch. On pure instinct she grabbed Shinji and pulled him up, twisting in the air, kicking down hard enough to flip the couch onto its side as she took off. Holding him to her side with one arm under his shoulders she grabbed the ceiling with her hand, pivoted, and twisted in the air.
The metal pumpkin rolled to a stop on the floor. Its eyes flashed, and a thick plume of green gas poured out of its mouth. Hikari coughed at it, covering her mouth, and dropped down onto the kitchen table, lowering Shinji to his feet. He tensed, and the drawers and cupboard flew open, forks and knives and spoons dancing out, moving on the air as though on invisible strings. Her limbs felt heavy and she stumbled, dropping hard on the floor. Shinji motioned with his hand but the silverware moved drunkenly, dropping out of the air to clatter on the floor as he sagged to his knees.
In the distance, she heard the most terrible laughter.