NEON GNESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION
Stage XXV: Salvation I
XXV-A: Et tu, Bruté?
Miyoko coughed weakly. The shot in her back had been meant to reach as high as low Earth orbit. Even her Evangelion's A.T. Field couldn't handle it; not with two Evas pressing down on her from both sides.
At least the red one was out of the picture. Unit 14 struggled to her feet and the silver Unit 01F tore through the ground, coming right at her.
The remnants of the city shook with the force of the colliding A.T. Fields of the two Evas. A gash was slashed through the ground as Unit 14's A.T. Field imploded, its center caving into a hole. Each pane of the octagonal energy barrier fell back and shattered one by one as Unit 01F broke them.
She cried out again. The overwhelming strength of the enemy was too much to bear. From the onset, that Eva had seemed too powerful to be real. She couldn't take it…
She couldn't take it years ago. Like then, she was powerless to do something about it.
Like then, she would be destroyed, and her body left to rot.
'No!'
If she died, the plan would fail. The world would never be soft or gentle, as she wanted it. Lloyd's dreams…would evaporate.
The latter fate was the worst. She couldn't let him down, not after all these years.
"No…no…no…"
The last barrier was groaning. She could feel her Eva screaming in pain.
'Sorry… I'm sorry that you have to keep up with my selfish demands.'
"One last battle, okay?" she whispered.
Miyoko slammed on the controls. A halo formed over her Eva's head, and its legs barely cleared the stream of energy brought by Unit 01's passage.
The wake of Unit 01 was soft, and her Eva sank into the torn earth. She turned, and ripped free the last of the shattered backpack. The snarling monster turned back. It was hideous, with a grin belonging to death itself, and fearsome eyes.
It was a monster that looked like her nightmare.
"I'm not afraid. Come, if you dare," she snarled.
"It is time." Lloyd's message was a relief. It was time for the world to end.
"Evangelion, Unit 14, all system restraints deactivate."
A billow of warmth as her seat slid down past the contamination zone.
A rush of energy, and an inexorable relief…from the Eva
Memories began surging in her mind. They were memories of her, as a child, but…they were from the perspective of someone else, someone else who watched her grow, and felt pride and joy as she matured.
"Mommy!"
In Unit 02's cockpit, Asuka shivered in pain even as she released morphine into her blood from a pod on her Plug Suit's leg.
In the distance, Unit 01 was dancing in and out of a hailstorm of strange looking, glowing tentacles that have spouted out of Unit 14's wings. The Evangelion was glowing bright white, with a ball of energy roiling at the center of its chest.
"Shinji, you idiot…"
She checked her Eva's monitors. It was still fully functional.
"Asuka, can you hear me?" Misato was yelling frantically. With the two miniature Lances still buried in her Eva, it was awkward to move. As the drugs surged through her bloodstream, the red haze in front of her eyes began to fade.
"Yea; how's Shinji?"
"We don't know; that Eva's energy output suddenly went up by over 400%. It's so powerful that its A.T. Field is obstructing Unit 01's monitors."
Asuka cursed in annoyance.
"And my Eva; can I still fight with this damage?"
"Asuka, don't! Your Eva is severely weakened! Take up a support role!"
In the far distance, Unit 14 cracked its helmet open and roared. From the pits of her memory, Asuka could remember the terrifying sound that Unit 01 had made as it tore the Twelfth Angel apart from the inside.
"Send up the C-Type equipment we got from Germany!" she ordered.
"Wait-"
The city jumped as a ball of energy consumed a good third of its remains. Asuka screamed in pain as she was thrown against her wounds by the force of the blast. The world flashed a bright, brilliant nothingness and faded into utter darkness.
It was dark in Unit 01's Entry Plug. Moments before, Shinji had been dodging in and out of the strange new attack. A dart of light had struck his Eva before he could move, and then the enemy…the enemy had looked into his Soul, it seemed.
"What…just happened?"
"Mommy! Mommy, what are you doing here?"
A girl's voice…no…Shinji didn't know her. Who is this person screaming out for her mother?
Was it the pilot of the Eva they'd been fighting?
Shinji walked ahead tentatively. The world was blank, and his body was composed of rough pencil sketches. All around, strange, grotesque humanity milled about mindlessly, lost eternally in its quest for understanding.
"Mommy…no! He couldn't have—he wouldn't do that to my mother! He wouldn't betray me!"
Who was this "he?"
Shinji felt anger replacing confusion. This world, he thought, was fucked up beyond imagination. Some little girl yelling for her mother was…was the person that destroyed his new life? The person who turned his world back upside down?
Bullshit.
The voice was getting louder, clearer. She was fighting reality, it seems. Fighting against a reality where this "he" had hurt her mother.
Doesn't she know that, in this world, people always hurt each other? That nobody could feel another person's pain?
Shinji could not understand why she was so surprised.
After all, people hurt each other all the time.
XXV-B: For Yourself
"C-Type Equipment fully docked."
Asuka released a second dose of morphine and checked on the temporary repair strips tied around her Eva's damaged points.
"All systems are green and ready to go; Evangelion, Unit 02F C-Type, moving out!"
"Good luck," Misato said gravely. "For God's sake, come back alive."
The young woman smiled at her commander.
"Roger; will do"
Unit 02 slipped out from behind the armaments building and took cover behind a structure close to the open patch of scorched earth, where the combined A.T. Fields of Units 01 and 14 roiled.
"Weapons status," she commanded.
"Main Assault Blade check, Secondary swords check, support swords check, combat knives check, throwing knives check"
Asuka crouched down. The C-Type was not the most logical of choices in this situation, but it was more her style. Besides, it was the only full set of equipment that Unit 02 has received.
The tendrils of Unit 14 have dug deeper, and the very earth was shaking with the pent-up energy swilling around in the ruined city.
"Is there any response from Unit 01 yet?" she asked.
"None…all contact lost…"
"That idiot…!"
Unit 02 shimmered in the energy wave of her A.T. Field. The world spun through Asuka's eyes as she tumbled into the clearing. Boosters all around her Eva fired rapidly, adjusting for a smooth descent. A small pair of gliding wings hissed quietly into place and caught the air. Propelled by the initial blast, Unit 02 accelerated as she ripped through the sky and hurtled down. It was not exactly subtle, and tentacles whizzed past in a frenzied attack.
"GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY!"
With helpful nudges from her Field, Unit 02 skimmed past the darting tentacles with ease. They were not aiming very well, sign of a pilot who was very distracted.
"TAKE THIS!" she screamed. It felt good to be fighting her way again. The Secondary swords plopped out of the C-Type Pylons and fell smack into her palms. In a wide scything motion, Asuka sliced away at the tendrils one by one. A stray came close to impaling her shoulder, but only hit the sturdy metal plate that was attached to the front of the C-Type Shoulder Pylon. The metal emitted a screech of protest as the tendril, obviously aided by an A.T. Field, sliced a corner off of it.
"Scheiße!"
With a precise slash, Asuka pared a tendril down into two wriggling halves. The remaining tendrils rolled themselves back with a thump, and gathered into two rolls.
The Fourteenth Angel's arm blades chopped off the arms of Unit 02 with ease, setting Asuka's nerves on fire with a blinding pain.
"In die Hölle kommen!"
The swords spun in uniform motion and chopped down, right at the center of the two oversized tentacles that shot out of the row. The air was filled with a high-pitched whine as Unit 02 came down at a speed close to the speed of sound and cut the two strands of glowing flesh into four. Crimson blood coated the Eva and formed a geyser of red from the luminescent tentacles.
"Just die!" Asuka roared in triumph.
The blades struck a crystalline note upon contact with Unit 14's A.T. Field. The octagons fractured, broke and shattered layer by layer.
"Don't make me do this for nothing, Shinji! I won't accept a corpse in return for saving you!" she called, not expecting him or anyone else to hear it.
"Because I love you, you dummy!"
Misato started in surprise. The entire bridge ooh'd and ahh'd in unison. Asuka forgot to turn off the universal channel.
"So you admit it, eh?" she teased despite herself.
"What-You heard?" Asuka screeched. "Damn it! It's so embarrassing!"
"No!" Misato yelled. "It's the least embarrassing thing in the world! There's nothing less embarrassing than falling in love with somebody, Asuka. Just do what makes you happy, not what feeds your pride!"
"It makes me happy to feed my pride!"
"No, it doesn't; how many times have you hurt yourself with that pride? How many times have you shied away from happiness because of that pride? Grow up, damn it! Do it for yourself, not for someone else's praise!"
Misato was frustrated. As a commander, she shouldn't be saying such distracting things in mortal combat, but as a…friend to Asuka, she had to. It was no longer possible for Asuka to act so rashly, driven by her vast ego.
A whine of energy filled her ears, and Asuka barely avoided the positron beam that shot out of Unit 14's S2 Engine. It was a spectacular sight; the bluish-white beam pierced the heavens with a mighty roar, tearing aside cloud and air, and the resulting stream of sonic booms threw Unit 02 clean off of Unit 14's A.T. Field. The morphine in her blood could not mask the agony of tearing through the rubble and remains of foundations with her battered body. A flash of light blinded Asuka, and left her alone, in the dark, spiraling away…away…and away.
Misato's voice remained as her last memory of reality
'Do it…for myself'
'For myself'
'Myself'
'I'
'I am…'
What?
All these years, all this fighting to regain her position as an Eva pilot…
Chasing after a possible future that was way gone
Chasing after her old dreams…and nightmares
Who had it been for? Certainly, not herself; she was terrified of Eva's power. Yet, it is this power that inexorably drew her, like a moth to a flame, towards what her life is now.
"I am…"
What am I?
Asuka Langley Soryu, pilot of Evangelion Unit 02-F, ace of the Luftwaffe and the best fighter in the world.
I am the best; there for I am.
Who cares?
I do! Other people do!
Do they? Do they really?
YES! YES! YES!
…
Images spun in wild circles through the universe. Images of crying little girls, torn stuffed monkeys and impatient women with children thrust upon them.
I can't forgive them; I can't forgive any of them; that's why I left and lived on my own. Eva and Shinji are enough for me.
"I am Asuka; nothing more, because there is nothing more. I'm the best."
Then…why do you lose so often?
It wasn't a fair fight! The Mass Produced Evas were so much more powerful than Unit 02!
That particular fight wasn't mentioned; is it weighing on your mind?
NO! It's long past! I don't care anymore.
Liar
Nerv-Japan Command Center
"Unit 02's central nervous system has been compromised!" Maya shrieked. "That thing's hacking into the mainframe and forcing synchronization!"
"Shut off any open data ports; close down the Eva for pilot control only!" Misato yelled.
"The pilot is unconscious! All controls have gone dark—the signal's attacking the Entry Plug!"
"Manually end synchronization! Preserve the pilot at all costs!" Misato yelled.
"No use! It's not responding to our controls—we don't have the master password from Germany!"
The master password…in the Berlin Magi…
That's it…
That must be what the attacker was using. A master password…with complete access right into Unit 02's mainframe computer…
"Oh, fuck…"
The bridge technicians sat back with slumped shoulders.
"We just got kicked out; all access passwords on every level have been reset. They've taken Unit 02."
Unit 02F, the very cutting-edge of German weapons technology, was now in the hands of their enemies…
An Eva hijacked…
"The Dummy System onboard! That was our installation! It was only accessible from Magi-Casper!"
Aoba, Hyuga and Maya all turned around in shock.
"Colonel Katsuragi-" they began.
"That's an order! Activate the Dummy Plug; it's designed to override the mainframe. While it's running, use it as a beachhead to get the Eva back!"
"Understood…" the techies were apprehensive. "Activating Dummy Plug"
A flow of data wrote over the wall screen. The new, revised Dummy System booted and used its preset administrator privilege to boot the Eva under its own control, reconfiguring the mainframe controls into slave drives that operated under the Dummy System.
"Now! Begin attacking the mainframe!" Misato ordered.
"The Dummy is a combat system; it's not designed to be an access point. We'll have to encode new software that requires rebooting the entire Eva. That process could take up to 180 seconds on the newest system."
"Write the codes; we'll take care of the diversion you need," a deep voice declared from behind them.
The Supreme Commander of the JSSDF strode in, accompanied by a squad of Spec-Ops commandos. The old man lifted his hand.
"I understand that there has been considerable strife between our respective services in the past. However, it is time that we put those differences aside. The SSDF will hold off the attacker and give you the time you need to recapture your Eva."
Misato stared intently into the man's eyes. He met it unblinkingly.
"Your Section 2 Chief was my good friend," he said. "I must see these people…these monsters-"
He swept his hand over the destruction on the screen.
"-are utterly destroyed."
Misato nodded.
"Thank you, sir."
The man nodded.
"From one warrior to another, Colonel…good hunting"
Miyoko drifted in the blankness of the world, bombarded by waves of memories.
Her life
Her death
Her resurrection
Her betrayal
Lloyd had used her; used her mother, and used her as a tool.
She thought…she'd meant more to him
Elsewhere, someone else was suffering, too. This person's mind was in turmoil, raging in fear and confusion.
"NO! GOD DAMN…I…I…"
"I just don't want to be ignored…I just want to be special, to be…someone's treasure."
Miyoko couldn't understand
In this world, people don't treasure you; her last hope of clinging to her old belief was gone; gone so freshly that she could almost feel the jagged tear in her heart.
"What do I do…?" she wondered.
There were more people coming; strange, isolated dots of energy that blossomed in her mind. Many of them came, with hostile intents, inside cases of metal that dulled Miyoko's sense of their Souls.
"Alpha squad, fall back. Beta squad, take the center. Delta and Gamma form the wings. Create an envelope formation."
The Heavy Fighter Jet-VTOL II, the newest in the Heavy Fighter series, was a fresh acquisition of the JSSDF. More maneuverable and better armed, some with positron weapons, these were quickly replacing the old Jet-VTOLs, whose ranks have been decimated by Angels anyway.
"Delta, Gamma, open fire with all weapons. Alpha and Beta fall back. All squads, widen the gap in your formation."
The wings of the formation opened fire with a deafening barrage of rockets and Vulcan guns. The two VTOLs on the far side also began strafing runs with their small positron cannons. The Eva paid no heed and continued to stand still. Unit 01 was almost completely wrapped in tentacles and being absorbed into Unit 14.
Perhaps it was already too late.
A world without pain
Is that what this person wants?
A world of nothingness, where one cannot be one's self
A great commune*of minds and Souls
But in this world, there is no "I," only "we."
"We" cannot love anyone the way that people want to be loved, by individuals whose feelings transcend the barriers of the Soul. No conversation of the mind can substitute the soft touch of Asuka's hands, the warmth of her lips, the brush of the silky strands of her hair and the murmur of her heart against his. No metaphysical universe such as this can contain human passion like interaction in reality. Individuality is vital to the formation of emotion, because only an individual can say, "I love you."
End Stage XXV
Footnotes:
* "Commune" stands for an intimate conversation of great passion, not an organization of Communists.