X: Ruin, Part I
"It seems like the better equipped our troops are, the harder these symbiotes are to kill," Major Tashima reported. Back again in the office of the Supreme Commander, Misato's mood this time was more somber rather than enraged.
"So, we start carrying incendiary ammo and this 'Carnage' targets them first," Misato added. "She's smart, this one. She must have figured out which soldiers were carrying the rounds that could kill her."
"Well, the only good news this time is this," Ritsuko said. "The sonic blasters are operational, and mass production is already underway. It will be harder for the symbiotes to defend against this type of weapon."
"Get them outfitted as soon as possible," Misato ordered. She leaned back in the chair looking tired and worn. "We have to stop them before this entire city falls into the grip of chaos."
"You look like hell," Ritsuko noted. "When was the last time you slept?"
"What day is it again?" Misato asked.
"That wasn't funny Misato."
"I wasn't joking," she deadpanned. "I don't think I've slept well ever since we found out Rei was Venom." She turned her chair towards the window and watched as the light began to dim in the Geofront. "I don't think I even can at this point. I'm tired of this, Rits. I'm tired, heartbroken, and I feel completely helpless. As much as I want to, I don't think I can save Rei. And now that I know that another innocent has fallen victim to this thing, I feel terrible."
"Misato," Ritsuko whispered, trying to console her friend.
"Leave me," Misato ordered. "Both of you."
"But Misato, I–"
"Just go," she ordered again in a low voice, gesturing with her left hand.
Ritsuko's face took a sad appearance as she nodded to Tashima and they both left the room.
Once the door was closed, Misato breathed a heavy sigh as tears began to fall from her eyes. She thought about Rei, and how she must be suffering and struggling with this thing. And then she thought about her own helplessness and inability to stop them.
She turned her chair back to her desk and picked up her coffee cup. She held it in her trembling hand as the feelings turned from weakness to utter frustration. With a cry of anger, she threw the ceramic mug with all her might, hearing it shatter against a nearby wall. The sudden sound was what finally shattered her floodgates and she cried hard.
Venom returned to her hideout in Nakameguro after another hard session of personal training.
Ok so... cow... not so bad, Venom commented.
"Well, you remember the roast beef sandwich I had a couple of days ago right? Where do you think the meat came from?"
Heh, go figure... Um, we have company.
Venom looked over by the stairwell from the tower and saw Shinji standing there. She hopped onto the top floor from the windowsill and let the exo-skin retract from her body returning her to normal.
"I don't remember the spider symbol," Shinji said calmly.
"Recent addition," she replied. "Shinji-kun, what are you doing here?"
"I came to see you," he said resolutely.
"I asked you to forget me."
"Rei, I have moved the heavens themselves to bring you back to this world. I'll be damned if I let you go now. If you and the symbiote are a package deal now, I'll just have to deal with it."
Rei didn't know what to say.
"You don't know what you're–"
"I do," he interrupted. "I don't care. I know the real you is right here. I think you're wrong though. I think you can separate yourself from this thing, and if you can't, I don't care anymore. I need you Rei... I can't do this without you anymore."
"Shinji-kun," she whispered.
He cleared the distance between them in just a couple of seconds and pulled her into his embrace, kissing her with all of his desperation all at once. It felt wonderful to Rei. Her arms snaked around him pulling him as close to her as she could. The symbiote within faded into the background and, for now at least, she felt something she hadn't felt since her first nightmares about the symbiote...
… Freedom.
"What now?" Rei asked as they both sat in the window sill. Rei was dressed in only her panties and camisole top but Shinji wore the same outfit he always wore.
"I wish I knew," Shinji replied. "I know you won't come with me back to NERV."
"No, I can't." She sighed. "Venom and I are one, I can't change that. And unless I can get it under control, everyone around me is in danger."
"Not like we're all that safe," Shinji replied. Especially with Carnage running around.
Rei's eyes narrowed darkly. "Carnage... I have to kill her."
"Do you know who she is?"
Rei was about to answer when Venom came out of submergence.
He won't believe you, she cautioned.
"No," she lied. "I don't know who she is. But, based on her combat style, she's given herself over to the symbiote completely. She revels in her own madness."
"That's terrible. Who could do something like that?"
"Whoever they are, they're disturbed and probably need to be put in a psycho ward somewhere, assuming they can even be saved."
"Which you don't believe," he pointed out.
"I'm sorry, Shinji," she said sadly. "Whoever it is, they have to die."
Misato woke up at 3am in the NERV Infirmary. She felt discombobulated and groggy.
"Where am I?" she asked sleepily.
"Room 252-84," Ritsuko replied. "You cried yourself to sleep and wouldn't wake up when I tried to wake you, so I had you moved down here. I believe you had a nervous breakdown."
"Color me shocked," Misato groaned as she settled back down. "You use a sedative on me or something?"
"Not yet. I highly suggest you get some more rest though."
"Then hit me with the good stuff," Misato said. "I'm not sleeping any other way."
"I'll wake you at noon," Ritsuko replied and started the IV Drip. Within moments, the commander was unconscious. "Sleep well."
Ritsuko walked out of the room and nearly ran into Maya.
"You ok?" she asked. But instead of getting a response, Maya threw herself onto Ritsuko, leaned up hard and kissed her. The rather short Operations Director of NERV had to stand on her tip-toes in order to execute this maneuver but she pulled it off. Ritsuko was stunned at first but fell into the motion quickly, wrapping her arms around her tiny friend.
When they parted, Ritsuko was left breathless and tried to get her heartbeat under control.
"I had to," Maya said, answering without the question being asked. She laid her head against Ritsuko's chest and held on to her sempai.
"I was wondering when you would," Ritsuko replied. "You hadn't tried to do that since..." She stopped talking. She had no idea if Maya had any memory of the event or not.
"Third Impact," she finished. "I remember."
"How?"
Maya shrugged slightly, without breaking her hold on Ritsuko. "Perhaps my soul wanted to be one with you so much that it refused to let me forget that singular moment when we were. Maybe Shinji didn't want me to forget for some reason. I don't know why I remember the day that never was, but I do... I remember it with crystal clarity; every moment, every scream, every sigh, every event." She shuddered slightly. "I remember all the good parts and the bad ones. I was afraid my soul would lie in ruins, considering how much I remembered. And after I talked with Shinji, I started wishing I didn't remember it. If what he told me is true, we were so close to oblivion that it wouldn't have taken much to push us over the edge. He did us all a favor in the end."
"Hey, calm down," Ritsuko nearly whispered as she rubbed the girl's back to try to relax her. "I understand. There are so many things beyond the boundaries of science and philosophy that we can never truly understand them. I know that. What's important now is that we have each other."
"You know, I originally wasn't going to approach you with this," Maya admitted. "But I can't live without you."
Ritsuko placed her forehead against Maya's and closed her eyes. Maya's eyes followed suit and she smiled, even as a few tears of joy left the corners the windows of her soul.
Back in the clock-tower, Rei was eating lunch when for the first time since last night, Venom spoke to her. What she said made Rei stop.
We should go to him.
"What?" Rei whispered. "I thought you hated him."
I did... I was afraid he was going to take you from me...
Rei put her spoon down, leaving her soup alone for the moment. "Are you in love with me or something?"
Not in the sense you're thinking of. She didn't expect that answer at all. I'm bonded to you. What you told Shinji is true for me as much as it is true for you. When he came here and you spent that rather tender time with him... I guess it... touched me in a way.
"You're supposed to be a heartless killing machine," Rei pointed out.
I know that! I've always been like that. But there is something about him, something very different. I thought all that talk about moving Heaven and Earth and killing angels was bullshit... I know differently now.
"I see." Rei sighed. "Its broad daylight, you know. It's going to be very hard to move around without being seen."
But you sense it too. Shinji needs us.
"Yes," Rei replied, placing a hand over her heart. "My senses are tingling like they're trying to warn me of something. And when I think about Shinji, they get stronger."
Precognition... We have that capacity. It's like how the spiders on this world sometimes seem to know how to dodge a blow or can sense an attack from a rival creature.
"Spider-sense."
A good a name as any.
"Has an nice ring to it," Rei replied as she changed back into her modified plug suit.
You know you really don't need to wear that. You don't need to wear anything at all. I can change my appearance to normal clothing if you want. No one would be able to tell the difference.
"Ok, I'm already grossed out slightly by the fact that you live inside me–"
Whatever. Look, we're basically the same now. While we still have a bit to go, you have to accept that we're becoming one. If you can get used to using me as your clothing as well as your combat uniform and personal arsenal, we'd come one step closer to being in synch with each other.
Rei couldn't find a hole in the argument.
And no, I'm not going to randomly disappear in public and embarrass you.
Rei blushed faintly at that thought, then sighed and took her hands off the plug suit.
"Ok," she said in a low voice. "We'll play it your way." She took off her camisole top and slipped out of her panties. Once she did so she shivered slightly as she felt the cold creeping into areas less comfortable.
Don't worry, I'll keep us warm. Though the words could have sounded seductive, Venom's tone was that of assurance.
The exo-skin exuded from her skin and covered her. Starting at the bottom and working her way up it changed it her school shoes, socks, and uniform. Rei looked at herself with astonishment. It even felt like her old uniform, though re-sized for her current body.
"Um... wow."
Perhaps something a little less conspicuous though.
From feet to face, the outfit changed again. This time to boots, jeans, a long sleeved sweatshirt with a hood, and a simple leather belt. Lastly sunglasses covered her eyes.
Section-2 and Section-4 are going to have a harder time spotting you like this.
"Good," Rei replied. "Let's head out then."
About two hours later, Shinji tried to relax in front of the TV at the Katsuragi Apartment but was having issues with it. His meeting with Rei last night was still fresh in his mind.
"Now I feel even guiltier about spending time with Asuka," he thought to himself. He knew the girl wanted him more, but now that he was getting through to Rei, he felt hope that he could be with the woman he truly loved.
"If you love someone, you look past their faults," he whispered to himself.
"I can't believe you're still pining for Wondergirl," Asuka said as she entered the living room.
Shinji got to his feet. "A-Asuka! W-What are you doing here?!"
"Did I catch you by surprise, baka?" she asked as she walked towards him, rolling her hips as she did so. She was wearing the same dress she once wore on the Over the Rainbow. "Why wish for something so frigid when you can have something nice and hot instead?"
"Asuka, please, we've been over this." Shinji backed away from her. He didn't like that predatory look in her eyes.
"I refuse to wait forever for you. We both know that Rei will never be what you need her to be. Let me be the one to fill the gap." She tugged on one of the shoulder ties allowing that side of the dress to fall dangerously close to revealing her assets to him.
"Asuka, please, don't do this," Shinji backed into a corner as Asuka made sure he had nowhere to go. As she pulled the other tie opened, the outfit fell from her other shoulder and revealed her in most of her glory. She stepped out of the dress and Shinj found it hard to look away. Her skin was so young and supple, free from blemishes and imperfections...
"Wait..."
"Asuka," he whispered, trying to get his hormones under control. This was a difficult proposition since she was wearing nothing more than a pair of red bikini underwear. "Where are your scars?"
"What do you–?" she cut herself off realizing her mistake. Just a couple of days ago, he saw her topless and saw the cracker sized scars on her body including the line on her arm where it was split. Because of the Carnage symbiote, all those scars were gone.
Shit, Carnage whispered in her mind.
"Get away from him!" Venom demanded.
Asuka turned to see Venom in the opened window crouched down with one claw holding onto the wall. She hissed at her which took Shinji by surprise.
"Asuka, what the hell?!"
"Shinji-kun, get away from her."
"No, Shinji," Asuka said. "Stay away from Venom. She doesn't deserve you."
"...Carnage," Shinji whispered in realization. "No..."
"We're sorry, Shinji-kun," Venom confessed. "We should have told you. We didn't think you'd believe us."
"So," Asuka began she used her fingernail to slash one of her own arms allowing her exo-skin to bleed across her. "The two of you have finally gotten yourselves together, huh. About time. Now we can have a real fight!" Once the Carnage transformation was completed, the red exo-skin shifted and undulated like a current of blood across her body.
"Bring it, uber-slut," Venom taunted. "We're ready for you this time."
Carnage hissed and launched a series of nasty red blades at Venom. The black symbiote responded by dropping below the attack inside the apartment from the sill and launching forward into a dual tentacle strike that knocked her away from Shinji. The young man ran to the far side of the room as the two symbiotes proceeded to begin trashing the apartment with their struggle.
"This... can't be," Shinji whispered. But the evidence was right there before him. He saw Asuka had no scars and he watched her transform into Carnage. Somehow, both of the young women he cared about in his life had become tainted by alien symbiotes. Even amidst the battle raging near him, he could focus on nothing else. "Does the universe hate me this much?"
Several darts of red were knocked away by tendrils of black before they fired into the red symbiote, throwing it into the TV. The poor electronic device shattered and sparked in its own death throes, but Carnage was nearly unfazed by the strike.
"So, you HAVE gotten better at this," she hissed. "About damn time. I was hoping for something a bit more sporting than our last confrontation."
"Shut your mouth and fight, bitch," Venom taunted.
Carnage leapt upon Venom with her claws extended puncturing her chest, but the black symbiote seemed unphased by the attack. Instead two tendrils wrapped around Carnage from under her first and pulled in two directions causing Carnage to spin laterally over her like a errant diver. While spinning, Venom braced her hands on the floor and kicked with both of her feet, sending Carnage through the ceiling and into the apartment upstairs. As Carnage attempted to get back up she saw a black tendril fire though the hole and stick into the ceiling. Venom propelled herself though the hole delivering a nasty uppercut on the way up and throwing Carnage back again. Venom stuck the ceiling on all fours and launched two more tendrils into Carnage, this time penetrating her chest, and threw her though a nearby wall. Carnage hit the foot of a bed causing its two occupants to scream in fear and flee. The man and woman took barely a moment to grab a blanket to cover themselves as Carnage got back to his feet and was promptly dive-tackled by Venom again.
Venom delivered two nasty claw attacks into Carnage's chest before kicking off to avoid a series of blades that extended from the red symbiote's chest in retaliation.
"You're learning," Carnage said dryly as she got back to all fours and hissed at Venom who was in a similar stance.
"You may been better than us as an EVA pilot, but you'll never destroy my will to win," Venom hissed. "The biggest mistake you made was going after Shinji-kun. Now you suffer!"
On the floor below, Shinji was running for the stair well, and his mind was racing just as hard.
"Goddammit, what the hell do I do now?" He lamented. "Both of the women I love are infected with symbiotes! How the hell do I fix this?" But he knew he couldn't realistically fix it. He didn't have that power anymore. If he were still the focal point of Third Impact... if he were still a god... he could simply will the symbiotes gone and save them both. He suddenly realized just how powerless he was now and it frustrated him beyond reason.
"I have to do something," he said between pants as he ran up the stairs to the next floor. He saw windows shatter at the front side of the apartments and rain glass into the streets. He heard the screams below and more authoritarian figures yelling for backup.
"Shit... Section-4."
Several black SUV's rolled up and dislodged black suited Section-2 operatives along with Spec-ops equipped Section-4 agents.
Venom was thrown into a refrigerator by Carnage and then had it collapse on her by virtue of the tendrils that dragged it on top of her.
"Damn you, Wonderslut! STAY DOWN!" Carnage yelled.
"Fuck you both," Venom replied as she rose up. She grabbed the refrigerator and threw it into Carnage hard enough to send her sprawling under it in the next room. Carnage formed her back into a series of lashing scything blades and tore the appliance into pieces, kicking several towards Venom which were promptly blocked with tendrils.
Carnage slammed into Venom again, putting her through the wall where the refrigerator was. They ended up in the kitchen of the next apartment. Neither took notice of the sound of gas escaping from the nearby destroyed stove. The wrenching damage done to the gas line was causing the previous apartment to fill quickly.
"He's mine, damn it!" Carnage hissed and she threw a coffee table at Venom only to have the projectile smashed in halves by a battering tendril. "You had your chance!"
"No," Venom said resolutely. "He'll never be yours. He doesn't love you the way he loves me."
"I can give him what he needs. You can't say the same."
"You don't know what he needs," Venom cut back. "You think your body is all he really needs or wants. You don't know shit about shit, bitch. I know what he desires. He wants to be loved, he wants a companion, not a fuck-slave."
Carnage laughed. "You know nothing about men. Or maybe you're just to naïve to understand what it is men really want."
"And a little 14-year-old wannabe woman who chased after a man more than twice her age knows how to give Shinji what he wants? You may have gotten older, but your maturity hasn't caught up to you."
"Both of you stop it!" Shinji cried as he ran in to the room putting himself between them.
"Shinji-kun, you shouldn't be here," Venom cautioned.
"I don't want you both to kill each other!" he cried with tears in his eyes. "I want you both to live!"
"We can't coexist," Carnage stated with finality. "Two competing apex predators cannot occupy the same space. And we don't care what happens, we've not going to give you up now that we've come so close!"
"But..." Shinji was about to finish that thought when he started coughing.
Carnage figured out what it was almost instantly. "Not this shit again," she hissed as she turned back towards the kitchen. At that moment, a canister flew though the window and landed near the kitchen.
"Shinji!" Venom yelled and tried to reach him before...
...the canister triggered. The small explosive device that released the tear gas heated the ambient hydrocarbons in the air...
…and the top half of the apartment building exploded into a massive fireball...
To Be Continued...
Luck runs out
Crawl from the wreckage one more time,
Horrific memory twists the mind,
Dark, rugged, hard to turn,
Path of destruction, feel it burn
Metallica, All Nightmare Long
A/N: I had originally intended to release the story in three parts, each consisting of about a third of the story. However, after discussing the situation with Tellemicus Sundance, I've decided to release the remaining chapters, one at a time as I've done in the past.
This was an experiment, one that I feel failed. From now on, I will release only one chapter at a time on all stories. However the new story planning technique seems to be turning out well.
Special thanks again to my writing partner on this one, Tellemicus Sundance, who never fails to come up with good ideas and notice important shit I sometimes miss.
Review Replies
Jimbob86: SOE with a villain is becoming a new thing for me. The idea of turning villains into the main centerpiece and maybe turning them into anti-heroes in the process was something I considered doing during the early days of the SOE Universe. It wasn't until Tellemicus came to me with the Venom vs Carnage story idea that I seriously gave some thought to the premise. I'm hoping other SOE authors, Orionpax especially, jump onto the idea as well.
Belthasar: That remains to be seen... Glad to see you again by the way. You're one of my biggest critics but you're input is always welcome.