Shinji and Warhammer40k

by Charles Bhepin

Shinji Ikari finds a boxful of insanity and becomes even more unhinged than before. Somehow, this is A Good Thing. As the grim dark future melts into stark bleak present, upon a throne of tropes humanity might find the savior it so requires. [story RESUMING]

34. Chapter 33: Uncertain Space part3

Uncertain Space part3

-o-
-o-

The waters were deceptive. On the surface, the currents and ripples looked calm
enough and motorboats could push against the current. Below however, in the
murky bubbly depths, the waters drained into a dark, limitless chasm. Kill Team
Tritonis clung to sunken lamp-posts and other jutting debris. The Angelspawns,
looking something like a cross between a serrated filleting knife and giant shrimp,
were unable to swim against the flow. The hydrosuit soldiers of the UN's new
combined-arms regiment held no illusions their backpack waterjets would fare any
better.

A giant metal foot stomped down nearby, hard enough to break reinforced concrete.
It felt like a slap through the waters, nearly ripping them off whatever they were
holding onto. Then the waters began to churn violently as giant feet moved to
some furious activity.

Sgt. De Leon, who was 'volunteered' to test out the new experimental suits and
doctrine, cursed at his all-too-predictable fate. They were but mere men, caught in a
field where machine-gods fought. It was bad enough they were too likely to die; but
it would not even be a meaningless death. It would just be... accidental.

The Evangelion (it did not matter which) slammed into the corporate offices directly
above them, and tore the building in two. Large chunks of concrete and steel rained
upon the street. The waters burst into violent, overlapping waves.

Sgt. De Leon saw a pink Toyota hurtling towards him, and one of the other Tritonis
clinging to it. His comms were filled with a variety of harsh, if incoherent babbling.

'Yeah, of course.' he sighed at the luck. 'Let's get this crap over with.'

The car slammed into him, and ripped him loose from his lashings onto a lamppost.
It slammed into a few more things in the way before being sucked into Leliel's
vortex. Needless to say, the experience was painful and pointless to the extreme.

-o-

Pain.

Synch ratio directly influenced the responsiveness of an Evangelion. It also affected
the efficiency of an AT-field, with higher levels requiring less energy to create and
maintain (to practically nil, for the maximum synch ratio). The feedback from his
actions were proportional to the speed at which Shinji could perform them.

Wham!

Wham!

Both Evangelions stepped back from each other, dazed. 'All right, this isn't working.'
Shinji thought. Even if he could tolerate a bit more pain out of the connection, he
was not sure if the other Eva had enough awareness to even -feel- any pain.

Wham! As it was, using his signature move would be contest to see which Eva
would endure even through brain damage. 'Why do I even have this horn?' the boy
thought further in his dazed state. 'If it was shorter, like a spike, this wouldn't be so
silly.'

Wham!

'Why am I still doing this, anyway?'

Wham!

'Oh, now I remember.'

The two Evangelions gave each other a simultaneous punch to the face in a cross-
counter, and toppled in opposite directions. Something stopped Unit 01's fall before
it could entomb itself inside the ruined offices.

"What the hell, Ikari?" Asuka shouted as she pulled the purple Eva up the building
half-collapsed and tilting at an odd angle. "You're still useless!"

Shinji chuckled weakly. "Well, I have been out of practice for three months." His
tone dropped to a pensive tone. "This would be much easier if I could just use the
AT-field..."

"Well, if you can, do it!" Asuka commanded. "In the meantime, try not to get in our
way while we deal with this jerk!"

"The enemy isn't using an AT-field either."

"Shinji, there's a heavy positron rifle on block six, marking your map interface now."
they both heard Misato's voice. "There's the anti-material cannon on block fifteen,
it's farther away, but we might need it to break through Evangelion armor."

"Oh, the battleship-grade solid-slug sniper cannon?" Asuka hissed. She wanted to
fire that thing at least once, even if her specialty was close combat. It was irksome
that the 18-inch sniper rifle was a response to Rei's requests for more dakka. The
longer barrel gave it better muzzle velocity than the more portable Assault Cannon.
Granted, simple kinetic strikes had little effect against an AT-field and were
hideously unweildy, but...

She glared as Unit 01 made a jaunty salute and began hopping from rooftop to
rooftop. The piercing flash of a positron gun just was could not compare to the
shock of recoil, the air-shattering crack, and the roll of flames bursting out of the
muzzle brakes. What an... explosive... experience. She could understand what
Ayanami found so... enjoyable... out of it.

The white Evangelion jumped again, in all its impossible agility, to land in a crouch
atop the building nearby. It tilted its head at her, like a bird. She felt irrational
hatred at such behaviour.

Her chainaxe spun; she screamed and leapt. It seems she would have to get her
satisfaction another way.

-o-

Meanwhile, the comparatively clunky Trident Land Dreadnought strained to get onto
a rooftop. Brawler configuration gave it two usable hands, however the stubby
length of its limbs still limited the war machine. Slowly, gouging out handholds from
a medium commercial block, it managed. Its feet dug into the reinforced concrete,
but fortunately most structures in Tokyo-3 were built to support more than just the
weight of their materials and expected internal stresses. Like most skyscrapers,
walls no longer needed to support their own weight, which made the buildings
vulnerable from the sides.

"Crap." said Corporal Vince Nagato, driver for -Magnos Tancred-. For the first time,
he had a good look at the spreading disaster. Most of Tokyo-3 was swallowed up by
dark waters, and the taller buildings poked up like spiny islands. "It was hard
enough getting up here... we're stuck if things start sinking again."

Mana prodded him with her boot and rubbed at her own shoulders. "What are you
complaining about? All you have to do is to drive, I'm the one that has to move the
arms. We're still too far from the action - argh! Damn Evas! Damn your long limbs!
Curse my limited rotation of armature!" The two older soldiers sighed at just how
easily she ignored the prospect of their futile demise.

The commercial block they sought refuge had several more taller buildings, but
what with the Land Dreadnought's just... pitiful... attempts at jumping, they were
stuck there. Mana Kirishima seethed as she watched the Evangelions hop along with
such ease, from building to building and across wide avenues. The war machine's
battle recorder took in the only reliable video of the fight.

It was like an old kung-fu movie, minus all the wires. Little booms followed their
jumps, from cracking constructs to the occasional bug attack.

Unit-04 used a large chunk of skyscraper facings to parry Unit-02's chainaxe. As
the bits chewed through the concrete, the white Eva bent backwards and kicked up
through the cloud of dust obscuring the red Eva's field of vision. Hitting the wrist,
the chainaxe then tumbled out of Asuka's grip.

'What the-... ? I just used that move a few minutes ago!' She jumped off the side
of the building after her weapon. "REI!"

Unit Zero needed no further instruction. It flared its AT-field for wider protection,
covering Unit-Two as it had to change the composition of its own field. The chainaxe
jumped back into its hand. Asuka -pushed- with her field to change directions in
midair, and gouging out a deep groove in the building as she broke her descent.

The white Eva had jumped right after her, and it swooped down with open arms
like a bird of prey.

Asuka grit her teeth. Her one-handed grip to keep herself from falling left an
opening that would take a fraction of a second too long to correct. She had no idea
what would happen if she directly touched Leliel's Dirac Sea surface, but it was
likely a bad thing.

There was a faroff boom. Unit-04 twisted aside and slammed right into the
building's facade. Asuka plunged her chainaxe's handle in to secure herself and
prepared for it to appear, burrowing through a building's innards again. She felt it
burst through the other side.

The air broke apart. In the distance, there were more and smaller explosive sounds.

"Sohryu, I must provide a barrier for pilot Ikari." she heard Rei say.

"About time you did something useful!" Asuka shouted over to the next comm
channel. "That's good. Just stay out of our way and do what you can."

"I missed." Shinji replied. "This thing IS too heavy. I don't think I can provide close
support, Asuka... I might hit you instead, the next time you go in swinging."

"Tch. Better than no support anyway." She opened up a window to NERV command
center. "I need an update! Where is it now?"

MAGI switched through its battery of sensors, from thermal to radar to seismic and
more besides... and came up with nothing. Maya felt both frustration and disbelief.

Unit One cowered behind the market row as flying bugs above battered his position.
After a few more moments, the shaking ceased as Unit Zero's AT-field arrived
overhead.

"It appears to be confirmed, that the enemy needs to switch between modes of
operation." the blue-haired girl commented. "Now that its long-range attack is
ineffectual, perhaps it will activate close combat maneuvers again."

"Blue pattern spike!" shouted Makoto.

The main screen showed a blue circle, showing levels of Angel AT-field activity,
concentrating towards one point. It was the Trident that had the clearest view, as
it happened right in front. The white Eva leapt out of the waters in a reverse dive
and vaulted right over the Land Dreadnought's head. Waters drizzled in a light rain
upon the red and black machine.

Mana Kirishima screamed at the insult of being ignored.

"Shinji! It's going at you!" Asuka shouted. The Angel appeared halfway the distance
between her and Shinji, and on the opposite angle from Rei.

Shinji grinned and set aside the heavy assault cannon. Type-T equipment was
different from the full Titanicus loadout, with just shoulder battery packs, some
helm assembly for the head and an abbreviated chestplate. Even with just that,
his movements were sluggish.

The purple Eva roared its challenge at the approaching enemy.

"What the hell are you doing? You're no match for it right now!"

"I know." he replied softly. "Please, Asuka. Let me try something for a while."

He could have challenged her team leader status, or thrown in that she could not
do anything anyway while so far away... but he still gave her the respect she had
earned. Whatever he learned in those three months, at least it seemed he still
remembered what was important.

"All right." she whispered. "I'm counting on you, baka Shinji..." They had faith in
each other.

Wham!

Both Evangelions led with their foreheads in the biggest headbutt ever. They reeled
from the impact, then swung a haymaker at each other's jaws. Wham. They began
to trade blows while not moving a step.

Unlike Asuka, whose sheer ferocity forced the white Eva to fight on the defensive
(something not entirely successful, given the relative inexperience of the mind
behind its movements) or Rei's own graceful soft-martial arts methods of
redirecting force (which also served her well, given that the enemy seemed
confused at having to slow down its own movements)... Shinji's own assault on the
enemy held no finesse, no thought to his own defense. With the sluggish control
over his Eva, it was his only chance to get a hit in at the enemy.

Prog knives deployed, sparks flew, and their strange fierce dance continued.

Unit One sacrificed a deep gash along its left forearm to stab at where the carotid
artery would be on a human's neck. The red blade gouged through armor. Viscous
dark liquid spurted out.

He then got a knee to the chest and an elbow to the side of the head. The purple
Eva lurched aside and nearly fell over the building.

"Okay, that's enough." someone said over the radio.

"Not yet!" he said back. He roared and surged forward, and the white Eva slipped
aside in a textbook aikido move. Shinji grinned and kicked towards its shin. Unit
Four fought to keep its balance and lost it when the offending foot scissor-kicked
towards its chin.

The white Eva was knocked off the roof and fell into the waters; vanishing with
a splash.

"I see..." Misato hmm'ed. "If the enemy is using this Eva like a puppet, then it's
reading the movements of our Evangelions too."

"The problem is that it doesn't realize there are actually distinct styles of fighting."
Asuka added. "Unless it can appreciate that certain movements are actually linked
instead of monkey-doing whatever it gets out of us..."

"Then we may take advantage of its ignorance. Pilot Ikari is familiar with either of
our methodologies."

Hands burst out of the roof's surface and grabbed at Unit One's ankles. The purple
Eva was pulled under, as if to its grave.

"Shinji!"

He could barely hear... the pain may be dull, but the pressure at his throat was
inescapable. He would survive should his Evangelion fail... die, even if for sweet
few days of nonexistence... but he could feel the contempt of -Principio Eternus-.

In such a cramped space, every motion gutting the structure even more, there
was no room nor time for stratagem. There was only the brutal reach...!

He clutched at the other Eva's head and tried to twist it around. As before, he felt
nothing from it... none of the characteristic extremes of emotion that the Angels
and Evangelions always had boiling within. Just energy, white-hot... and purposeless.

'It's not supposed to turn out like this!' he yelled within. 'I can't... all that I've
done, all those plans... lives disrupted, turned the world upside down! What's the
point if in the end I'm so weak as to be beaten by a puppet?'

He remembered storming into the new monastery, demanding explanations. Then
he was reminded, that there were no guarantees in their philosophy.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

## JAVAALCHAT - it's all a matter of psychics!

...snip...

sunshine_kid \ Done all we could, hmm? breach of contract, where does it say?
Never signed one, no, no...

man_of_peace \ I KNOW you can make proper sentence structures, old man! I read
your memoirs!

sunshine_kid \ Hmm... wrote a word of it, never I did. Told it to my own grandson, I
did. Wrote it down, he did. Several times had to stop him from poisoning me, while
collecting my thoughts we were.

man_of_peace \ ... I feel for his pain.

young_king \ SOMEONE PLEASE STICK TO THE GODDAMN ISSUE OR YOU'RE ALL
FIRED!

*young_king pauses a beat.

young_king \ AGAIN!

golden_saint \ When the times comes, you will have the strength, sattava. I have
faith in you. You won't fail us.

young_king \ Well... um... thank you. But I'd rather not risk it. Gah! After all the
crap I've already gone through; what's still blocking me?

man_of_peace \ Perhaps you should not have been so eager to give up the power
to crack the planet in half.

young_king \ First, I was being metaphorical about that. Second, consider the
words. Crack. THE PLANET. In half. Would you ever really be comfortable with a
TEENAGER, out of anyone, holding that much power?

man_of_peace \ ... admittedly, no.

*young_king now sympathizes with Akagi-sensei. Deeply.

young_king \ It doesn't make sense! It's not fair!

sunshine_kid \ Universe, fair? When? For those under the strong's sphere of
influence, fairness. That much, only what anyone can do. But no hope for fairness
one who protects must expect.

young_king ... anything else?

sunshine_kid Hm. Hm. No. Wrestle a monster to your will you must. Why you ask
us this? Any of us look like shounen heroes, hmm? Solve your own problem you
must! Trust in drama, you should!

young_king \ Reality. Does Not. Work. THAT WAY!

golden_saint \ if that is what you want... then so be it.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

He could hear the armor cracking. He punched at the white Eva's face again and
again, but knew it had no will of its own. If he could just use the full power of an
AT-field it would be ridiculously easy. If it was an Angel... he grinned though the
pain... he was confident he could -break- any Angel.

Unit Two sprang from building to building. Just as she was about to reach the
target, the structure just shattered into a shower of wildly spinning fragments. A
dust cloud spread out from the site.

Two figures sprang out, slamming into buildings on opposite sides. Asuka caught
Unit One again, before the Eva could slide down to the waters. "What did you do?"
she asked.

Between coughs, Shinji answered "Whose bright idea was it to make Evangelion-
scale grenades? Remind me to thank him or her." The rounds were actually only
modified high explosive shells, but since NNHIS was experimenting with all aspects
of Dakka anyway...

"That explosion's a little too big for a handful of Great Grenades."

"... must have a opened up a gas line or something." he said, shrugging carelessly.

The white Evangelion landed on a rooftop nearby, waiting in a crouch. Shinji
strained to get up. Asuka pushed his Eva back down. "You're just getting your ass
kicked! There's no shame in admitting you're not up to your usual level, baka! It's
all right."

"Not yet. I still have to face it at least once more..."

"What are you trying to prove?" She felt like giving him a much-needed wake-the-
hell-up punch.

Shinji smiled slightly. "A theory. Please, Asuka... one more time." His look towards
the enemy was predatory. "I won't get killed that easily. You know this... none of
the attacks the Angel showed so far, none of them can really be thought of as really
that fatal to an Eva."

Unit Four was moving, as it was Rei's turn to attack. The combination of ranged
firepower and a prog bayonet at close range meant that the white Eva had to move
even more acrobatically around her.

"Fucker's too fast to let us get in a good hit either..." Asuka muttered, watching.

"It's NOT the Angel." Shinji reminded her. "Let's not forget that. It's just one of the
many weapons the Angel has over us..."

Unit Four was swooping up in the air again, standing upon a floating disk made of
bomb scarabs. It crossed its arms and seemed to glare arrogantly down at the
defenders.

Unit One roared and was off to clear fighting ground. "Dammit, Ikari!" Asuka
shouted. "This is no time to be showboating! This isn't about you, dammit! Your
goddamn pride's just going to get yourself beat down!"

That Asuka could make such a statement without being ironic was a testament to
how far she had come since her first battle in Tokyo 3. Down below, Misato had to
nod in appreciation for that fact.

"That's what I'm hoping for!" was the response.

"What kind of perverted things have you been doing out there?" Asuka shot back,
her voice pitching oddly. "You masochist freak! Get back here!"

Too late though, as the enemy Eva had already jumped off its perch. It landed
heavily, trying to pin down Unit One. Just barely, Shinji managed to dodge. He
deployed the other prog knife and went intoa knife-fighter's crouch as the enemy
dug itself out the hole it made.

And once again, a brutal and nonsensical skirmish. It was somewhat impressive
that they managed to parry with their knives again and again, the clash of metal
upon metal ringing in the air. It was then that the small differences began to show.

Unit Four, the newest Evangelion model, had lighter armor than the test type. It
had less protection for the arms and legs, but had a reinforced central torso. Even if
it lacked a pilot, apparently the power of the S2 Engine was enough to give it rapid
healing. A knife could not do any serious damage away from the core.

They were pilots; not soldiers or warriors. There was no one inside the plug, it was
no honor duel. The other Evangelions closed in; those inside concerned and puzzled
about why their fellow pilot was being so stupidly stubborn.

He was just getting beat down. The Evangelions were just trading blows, and finally
one last hit was enough to send Unit One sliding to the edge.

Unit Zero leapt, and at the apex of its jump lurched away from the target. It just
barely managed to reach an isolated building. Rei looked up to see that the two
fighting Evangelions were grappling again.

'I had my AT-field up. How?' She looked down and dodged aside as something
broke right though what she was standing on. 'The Angel's hypervelocity attack. It is
harder to predict. Apparently it may also come from below.'

Then suddenly, an Evangelion screamed.

Not rage, not challenge... but pain.

The white Evangelion clutched its face, which was giving off smoke. The purple
Evangelion punched up at it, and the enemy staggered back.

The air broke again, and there was the distinctive sound of metal being struck.
Evangelion Unit One stood there with its right arm outstretched.

Shinji closed his fist and something exploded from inside it. He grinned. "Now I
understand. You will hide no secrets from me, monster."

Unit Four hopped back and off the roof, with a tendril looping down from the
swirling bug horde above to support it in midair. It gestured to send another
deadly tendril at Unit One.

Shinji leaned back, almost drunkenly, and let it pass overhead. He swung around
and for some reason the clumps of bomb scarabs bent back towards its source.
The white Evangelion leapt off as two groups of bomb scarabs slammed into and
mutually annihilated each other. It vanished again into the depths.

Cheers and whoops sounded through the command center.

"Shinji!" Asuka yelled, laughing. "You crazy bastard! You figured something out, didn't
you?"

'I had to feel it with my own body. Again and again... there was no other way.'
Only by mirroring its motions could he discern the difference.

The boy was gasping for breath. "It's... it's not much. But I had to know... just how
does the Angel control the Eva from afar? In fact, how does it even see what's-
... gak!" The Evangelion rolled aside as hypervelocity strikes peppered the roof.
"Okay, I've had enough. HELP!"

Asuka grinned, but even she had to dodge strikes. The few ones that actually hit
hurt. A lot. She flared her AT-field, but that limited her range of movement.

The three Evangelions finally reached the same roof and stood back to back. Unit
Zero held its Assault Cannon. Unit Two held the chainaxe, with its pilot thinking on
turning it into a combi-weapon; perhaps a bolter into the handle. Unit One only had
its bare hands, and the freakish intellect of its master.

"So how does it work?" Asuka asked, while keeping a wary look at the waters for
where the enemy might emerge again.

"Electromagnetism." Shinji replied. "Somehow the Angel managed to interlace its
altered space with literal threads of an electromagnetic field. It's all around us, we
just can't see it." He pointed up at the bomb scarabs. "They're conductive. Get
them in a line, and you have an electromagnetic rail launcher."

"Like the ones we use?"

"Somewhat. It's..." Unit One snatched its arm left almost impossibly quick, and
something exploded against the back of its hand. It would have hit Unit Two in the
head. "Ow. It's hard to really see... but it can happen in an instant. And we don't
really know what's going on inside that Dirac Sea."

Asuka watched with wonder that smoking palm covering her view. "That was fast.
How's your synch ratio?"

"I don't know. But I'm boosting my movement using the same method the Angel
is using to control Unit Four." He pointed to his shoulder, then his wrist. "You don't
see it, but there's a thread of force between here and here."

"How is that possible without an AT-field?" Rei asked.

"It doesn't require a particularly strong field. It only works here because of the
unique conditions the Angel set up for itself."

Rei narrowed her gaze. "The enemy may use this to take control of your Evangelion."

"Then maybe I can trace it to its source. It's a strange feeling." He shrugged.
"Besides, unlike Unit Four, my Evangelion will eventually run out of energy. With
me fighting it all the way, my Eva would not actually be as much of a threat." His
voice lowered again. "I just don't understand what the enemy wants to accomplish
with this..."

"Who cares? Here it comes!" Asuka pointed at the white Evangelion swooping out
of the Sea at the head of a snake-like collection of bomb scarabs and doomprawns.
"Kill it, don't let it accomplish anything!"

Before jumping into action, Rei said softly "It is most gratifying to have you fighting
by our side again, pilot Ikari." She smiled slightly. "Once more, we are whole."

There was glory, and splendor, and the beauty of perfect teamwork. The white
Eva flitted from one opponent to another, a deadly dancer, but the NERV Evas were
always ready to exploit their own opportunities.

Against the backdrop of a setting sun they were grotesque, yet oddly graceful
shapes. Evangelion Unit Four, as the battle went on, had picked up a chainsword
from somewhere; it was painted white, appropriately enough. Its attacks still made
up for in unearthly speed and force what it lacked in its own technique.

How many hours had they already fought? With the cooperation of three against
one, it was possible to switch battery packs on the fly. A pity that the Trident could
not change its modules so easily; though its hands could hold a Great Bolter well
enough. One of the things that Misato improved upon in Tokyo-3's defenses was to
place several umbilical power lines -on top- of buildings. With NNHIS own proprietary
sockets, it was possible to overcharge the hardmount positron gun. Once again, it
would have been much more convenient if they had gone out in Hellfire mode.

Explosive rain fell indiscriminately around the city. Shinji, climbing up Tokyo-3's
tallest building, saw the devastation caused by his return. The waters were starting
to stain red from the sunset, like blood... and buildings jutted out like the remains
of some great beast.

Hopes and dreams, once more crushed within an eyeblink. The other Evas were
worsening the damage with every step. "No..." he snarled. It was his failure again.
His AT-field could not cover the city. The feeling of the Angel's presence, its thick
suffocating aura shrouded his city.

His Evangelion agreed with his indignation.

-Principio Eternus-showed the Angel folly of enfolding it in an electromagnetic field;
lightning erupted from its fingers in a worthy Palpatine impression and scoured a
large swath of bomb scarabs from the sky.

Shinji stared down at his hands. 'Huh. That... shouldn't have worked.'

Whatever inquiries she wanted to make had to be set aside, as Asuka took the
chance to attack the enemy while its movements temporarily slowed to a crawl.
The switch to full and hostile attention was still immidiate, though. With its
chainaxe as a counterweight, Unit Two perform equally mystifying acts of
acrobatics, clashing with the enemy in mid-air.

They both landed on opposite blocks from that they started with, but Unit Four
made two dull thumps as it came down. Its right arm was hacked off close to the
shoulder. The white Eva turned and roared, its eyes flashing with sudden
awareness. White tendrils lashed out from the wound to wrap around the
amputated limb and bring it closer. It the simply stuck it back on. White flesh
burbled around the wound and subsided. It tested the limb and roared again
at the red Evangelion. The light in its eyes faded as it crouched to attack.

"Oh, come on!" Asuka yelled. "That's not fair! Is that a standard feature of the
new models?"

Ritsuko's voice came through with "Not as far as I know. Maya, I need a dump of
the vision log..."

"Do you think the worms work on Evangelions now?" Misato asked.

"They are based on Angel cells, same as the Eva. I've tested it, the main barrier
is that Evangelions are just too... large... to be affected. But Angels and by
extension, Evas, have proven capable of their own rapid regeneration before."

"Asuka, this thing is testing us."

"I think that's pretty obvious by now, Misato!" the red-haired girl shot back.

"We don't know if capturing it is another sweet trap like what happened to the
Earth's Cradle. Since it's not using an AT-field, if we don't want the city to start
eating N2 mines, you've got to kill it now. Wounding strikes to slow it down won't
work, we need to coordinate for a single fatal blow."

"Phfft. Like what with the bugs overhead, any airstrike has a chance to get
through. But all right."

"What makes you think we'd have to wait for someone else to do the deed?"

A respectful silence filled the command center. What with the enemy's agility, an
N2 strike would have to be large enough to break through Evangelion armor and
in sufficient numbers to saturate its escape routes. Or, more likely, given that it
could just flee into the Sea; delivered point-blank to its face by another Eva.

"Fine. Let's flip a coin for that later." She let her own Eva roar. "COME ON, YOU
PUPPET! DIE, YOU DOLL!"

-o-o-

Blam! Click-click.

Blam! Click-click.

Blam!

NNHIS had a rather obessive bent towards providing NERV with Eva-scale weapons
of every sort. NERV was the first to build the Great Bolter, and derivatives thereof.
They also had the lead on more exotic forms of hostile expression.

Though both institutions were no longer rivals, they still competed on some unseen
level. Hence, the prevailing attitude that while NERV may rule with biotechnology,
without proper help their weapons just -sucked-. NNHIS arms may not be fancy,
but they were rude and reliable. NERV focused on powerful, if slow-firing weapons
(such as positron, laser and particle beams) while NNHIS built up an armory of
rapid-fire large-bore guns. Anything that a human could use...hell, anything that a
tank or battleship could hold... may be scaled up for an Eva, material stresses be
damned!

Hence, among other things, the Evangelion Great Boomsti-...Shotgun. It may not
be as intimidating as the huge Assault Cannon or capable of as much dakka as
the Great Bolter, but Rei found she rather liked the weapon.

The white Evangelion was running away from her, and if her Eva could use its mouth
it would have let out a mad cackle. Unit Zero chose not to do anything spectacular,
but its performance was solid and unshakable in critical support for the others. She
had already gone through several changes of weapons and battery packs. The
enemy had learned to fear the ranged advantage.

Mana Kirishima and -Magnos Tancred- ached to join in the skipping skirmishes, but
bewailed their paltry mobility.

"Kirishima-san! Shoot at me!" Shinji asked.

Jolted out of their musings, the crew complied without thinking. The positron shot
bent between Units Two and One and chased at the fleeing Unit Four. The beam
lasted only for a fraction of a second, lacking power; but it was enough to intercept
and serve as their own alternative for the hypervelocity strikes.

The enemy might never run out of energy, but bit by bit they were sapping its
capacity to fight. They with aware minds could learn and adapt much faster than it
could copy their strengths. In a few minutes, they had totally changed the flow of
battle. Its long-range attack was null as long as one other Eva could put up a field;
and it could not escape back into the sea so easily. Unit One served fire support
in a decidely unorthodox manner... salt in the seawater made it a conductor, and
never had it been so clear just why the Terminatus Legio had the thunderbolt on
their banner.

"And the natural order has been restored. Asuka get to hack away at things, Rei
gets to shoot at things with a really big gun, and Shinji Ikari pulls even more weird
shit with his... with an... AT-field." Ritsuko rubbed at her head. The ahoge began to
droop down, then perked back up. "Wait, what am I saying? That isn't natural at
all! Just because something is predictable doesn't mean it's logical!"

"Maah, it's all right. No need to overthink what works, Ritsuko."

"What works against what? We're not really doing any damage to the Angel itself.
This is... too easy. Why should it provide us with the very instruments of its own
downfall." The scientist bit her lip. "Huh. That doesn't make any sense either..."

The last few exchanges fared poorly for Eva Unit Four. It was overwhelmed by
the possibilities and had to flee. It burrowed into a building, and through its
basement retreated into the Dirac Sea.

Then the buildings began to sink again, and much faster this time. The air tingled
with ominous feelings.

"Damn! I was wondering when this would happen again. Let's get out of here!"

"Sohryu, the Trident requires our aid."

The Land Dreadnought walked in circles helpless around atop the tallest building it
could reach, for all its deadly potential showing a puppy-like panic.

"Let me help." said Shinji. "Someone has to keep the shield up. At least lifting
doesn't require much control over the Eva." The people on the screen gave back a
'...and what the frak was that thing you were doing, then?'

"This is humiliating..." Mana grumbled over comms as the two Evangelions hauled
the comparatively dwarfish machine up like so much luggage.

"Hey, there's a lot invested hunk of junk you're in. Not to mention what it takes to
feed and house you. It's not good to waste any more resources." Asuka quipped.

"Well, thanks for the concern." was the reply, but the sarcastic tone did not quite
reach.

The Land Dreadnought tilted and dropped, and Asuka barely kept from being
dragged down with it. "Hey!" she shouted, at Shinji who had so suddenly let go
and was staring up at the sky. "What's your problem now?"

The purple Evangelion pushed at her roughly, and jumped back. 'The fu-... is he
trying to pick a fight?'

The largest lightning bolt they had ever seen tore into the building they were
standing on, coring it right down to the foundations. The flash blinded everyone's
sensors.

'Have I mentioned lately how much I hate knowing that the Angels aren't exactly
stupid?' Asuka felt something slam onto her back and changed her fall to a
faceplant right at the building's edge. Then the she felt herself falling again...
no... she realized that half the building was starting to slide away.

Blinking to clear the spots from her eyes, she managed to jump again at roughly
the same time as Unit Zero; both Evas clumsily wedging themselves into the other
and mostly intact half of the structure.

"Pilot Sohryu, have you been damaged?" At the negative response, Rei turned to
the other channel with "Pilot Ikari, please respond."

"... i'm 'kay, I think. Mana?"

"... ii-te... i think... i need... to shoot someone in the head..."

"Ack! Ki-kirishima-san! Please stop waving that around...!" someone said from
inside the Trident.

"Good job teaching the Angel one more trick, Shinji you ass!" Asuka said, but
without any real rancor. "Ungh. Let's get out of here... I'm getting sick of this shit."

"Understood. We cannot save any more of the city." Rei replied. "Colonel Katsuragi,
I reque-...!" Whatever she was about to say was cut off as a hand reached out of
the churning waters to grab at her ankle and drag her down into the all-consuming
darkness that was Leliel's true being.

She let the fear run through her veins for a few moments, then discarded it. She
let go of her right hand to keep from dragging Unit Two down with her, but of
course, Asuka only acted to the quickest and less sensible option.

"Hang on, Ayanami!" the red-haired pilot shouted. "Gah, bastard! Go away!" She
threw her chainaxe at the enemy, freeing both hands to hold on to her comrade.
Her feet dipped at the water's edge; the Dirac Sea was still swallowing up
everything in its maw. Several hours and countless tons of seawater could not be
taken back so quickly, but she had no way of knowing how deep the waters were.

Unit Four's eyes flashed and it reared up to grab at her ankle instead with its
other hand. Her stance at the building's edge collapsed and both NERV Evas started
to slide down despite desperate grabs at exposed structural frames.

There was a distinctive roar, and suddenly their fall stopped. Just barely in time,
Unit One grabbed a wrist each of its partner Evangelions (left arm for Unit Zero, the
right for Unit Two) and braced itself against what remained of the third floor Apricot
Tower concourse.

Unit Four clattered its teeth, like a laughing skull. If one were to look through the
waters, it was up to its knees inside the Dirac Sea. Just that added immense suction
to its pull.

Shinji's shoulders burned with the exertion. Without the AT-field, it was a matter of
mass and resistance. 'Don't let go... don't let go..!' he begged the machine spirit,
unable to trust the distant nerve feedback from his limbs.

Masonry cracked, his foot slipped. He managed to jam his feet into an elevator
shaft and winced from the twisting of his knee joints. He tried to ignore the
dislocated bones; even if Unit 01's armor was tough, its own internal structure was
made to support only itself - not the sudden force of three Evas at once.

Rei realized it well before he did. "You must let one of us go." she said simply. "One
of us may then force the enemy to release its grip upon the other."

'Don't... don't...!' Shinji screamed inside. 'We're strong! It's not enough to have the
strength to kill, machine spirit! We have to be strong enough to save them...!'

His defiant, desperate scream echoed through the command center.

"Oh, gods, no..." Maya muttered softly. "Don't force him to make this choice... not
like this."

"Can't we do something? Ready all ground defenses! Who else is out there?"
Misato shouted.

Makoto shook his head sadly. "N... none of the intact defenses have a clear shot.
We... wait one... the Tempest squadrons are going for a distraction run."

"That would be suicide..." Maya added.

"They know. But... they think it's more than a fair exchange..."

"NO!" Shinj shouted. "No more deaths! No more sacrifices! I won't let it happen!"
He strained until various popping and cracking noises went out from the commlink
of his entry plug.

He had never felt more afraid in his life. Nothing that threatened him could ever
compare to this. Not even in that dark and unreal forest, when hunted by things
that never knew mercy. 'The same thing I told that damn Sidhe. My flesh may be
weak... but let my will be the coldest dark iron!'

What was most infuriating was that unlike say, Nagisa... this Angel was not making
it personal. Either Eva would do. He could hate it for what it was doing, but not
for being what it was. It had been so much easier a few months ago, when he did
not realize to what extent both humanity and the Angels were trapped by an old
grudge neither really understood.

"Pilot Ikari. You have done this before." Rei said softly. "It is acceptable. I may be
replaced." She reached with her other hand to pry his grip loose from her wrist.

"NO!" Asuka temporarily pushed off from her own handhold to slap away the other
girl's hand. The three of them lurched down a bit, and they readjusted their place
on the tilting building. "No..." she added in a scratchy whisper. "Damn it... I'm
not... I'm not selfless enough... I don't want to die."

"Then it is simple." Rei replied.

"No! Damn it, I won't be beaten this easily!" She snarled and tried to push up, but
the concrete just crumbled under her palms. "Let go, dammit! Fucking Angel!" Her
other foot was wedging her into place; she could not risk it. "Come on! We can get
through this...!"

Shinji screamed. Everyone could distinctly see Unit 01's left arm was longer than
the other, the Titan shoulder modules already bent at a steep angle from the torso.

"...move...! MOVE!" Mana screamed as well. -Magnos Tancred- was flat on its
back, its amor still smoking faintly. "This is when we're most needed! Move, you
blasted machine! WE DON'T BREAK THAT EASILY!"

Even the red emergency lights of the Trident were broken. The arm controls swung
without resistance. The others in that dark place pretended they could not hear
her sobs. There was nothing they could say or do that could help...

"Pilot Ikari, one must fall or we will all fall today." Rei said even more firmly. "I am
the most expendable of us."

"No one's expendable!" Asuka screeched. "The team's strength depends upon its
unity! This... this simple thing! We can't let this beat us...!"

"He is in pain! He will die rather than choose between us! I will not let that
happen." Rei's voice was higher and more resolute than they had ever heard before.
"If it is your desire to save this world, if you have any regard for him or I, then you
will let me do this. You are not as selfish as you may think, Sohryu. Now you must
exercise that human trait... for the Greater Good."

That was the longest single statement they had ever heard from her. Gendo heard
the emotions in it, but taking in the content of those words... did it mean she still
obeyed the scenario that she existed for? At least, she did not seem to have any
illusions about the importance of her well-being, emotionally or otherwise.

"If you even so much as twitch on that hold, Shinji, I'm dragging you into hell
with me! We started this together, we'll end it together!"

"You are being irrational, Sohryu."

"Shut up!"

There was a piercing shriek, and a loud phwongg! of metal impacting harshly upon
metal. Unit 01 lurched in its hold, and its grip loosened slightly.

They were the the masters of the most frightening weapons ever made, lords of
war in their engines of destruction... but they were in the end, just teenagers.
Though they fought for the same goal, they each had their own distinct ideals
that could come into conflict at the most inappropriate times.

It was for history to decide if it was Langley-Sohryu's fervent, perhaps even
delusional attachment to her friend's lives and the perfection of their united purpose
or Ayanami's own unconcern for her own fate and the feelings of those who valued
her that drove Ikari into it... but it was clear that he had to make a choice and soon.
He chose the least painful one.

"Rei... she's right. The most expendable one should do something." he whispered.
"Your Evangelions are fully-functional. The world needs you more right now."

-Principio Eternus- roared. The synch level started spiking uncontrollably, up to 99
percent and down to below twenty.

"SHINJI! YOU MORON!" Asuka shouted as he let both of them go to dive at the
enemy Eva himself. "DAMN YOU! WHAT THE HELL...? NOT AGAIN!"

"Ikari-kun!" Rei gasped, and lunged down. The fingers of her Eva missed by mere
inches. "Why... do not this to us..."

"Goddamit! Don't you dare sacrifice yourself! That's not an acceptable option...!
We... fuck you, you damn... idiot hero! How dare you...! We're not... we're not
going to be -happy- if you abandon us, baka! HANG ON!"

"...agh! I need to get up! Ikari-san! We have a heavy-duty chain for this sort of
thing!" The Trident's fingers twitched, but that was all. "Damn it all, it's not fair!"

Unit One managed to jam itself into a temporary foothold while the Unit Four tried
to shift its hold. As the Evangelions grappled once more, Shinji spared some
attention to speak flatly "... don't get me wrong, Asuka. Rei." A pause. "Maya-san.
Mana... I care for you deeply. I'm sorry, Misato-san. I'm not doing this just to make
a point." He grinned slightly. "You're all so strong. I'm only doing this because I
know you won't fail when it really matters. This Angel wants something out of the
Evangelions... let me waste its effort!

I trust that you'll rescue me when it's time. THIS is something only I can do." He
sighed as his feet lost traction. His arms flopped about uselessly. "I'll be fine. It's
better this way... please. Trust me as I trust you."

"Shinji!"

And then he was gone. Even the lifesign sensors on Maya's panel blanked out. The
young woman screamed in grief and fury.

"NO! NO! RAAGH! THAT STUPID TOTAL FUCKTARD!" Asuka jumped down into the
waters, but slammed only into concrete. Leliel constricted its domain to keep
others from following, and incidentally making it harder to throw bombs into its
dark pool. The bomb scarabs began to spiral down into a vortex. Correspondingly,
its shadow also seemed to shrink... until it was about the size of a basketball.
"...no. Dammit, Shinji..." LCL kept tears from forming.

Rei had sworn her life to his service; but for the first time ever she felt like
murdering her own beloved, if he actually lived through it. It hurt... never had she
hurt so much, even through the worst injuries in Gendo's purpose.

Mana Kirishima had simply... fainted, her mind overloading itself with the memories
and implications.

The sunset was already giving way to the night, and the battle was over. It was
all so suddenly so peaceful again. Shinji Ikari bought them time to breathe and tally
the casualties.

It was a little hard to believe that it was actually over.

They lost. For the first time, NERV lost. And to an Angel whose attacks were not
all that terrifying compared to the others. The enemy chose to retreat. The enemy
had an objective, and fled after apparently accomplishing it rather than fight on
to further its ego or its animal instincts.

It was sensible... at the same time totally incomprehensibly... and that was what
made it too dangerous. The power of the Evangelions were worthless against its
cowardly moves.

They had no way of knowing just how much time they had before the Angel
decided it was ready to really get serious and break into the geofront. They had
no way of knowing what other tricks it had, or what it might pull from its captive.

"He's not DEAD!" Misato spat out, whirling around to glare at everyone staring
worriedly at her. "Everyone, remember we're still on the job! I need ideas,
contigencies... now's not the time to slack off, people!" She gave but a single
moment to rub at her eyes. "That little fool... all right. If we have to save his
little butt this time, then that's what we're going to do..."

Even Gendo had to clench his fists. 'This is part of the prophecies, too.' he thought.
If the writings were totally meaningless, then the events... should they still be
happening?

-o-

-o-

The Tritonis hydrosuits had limited power servo and myomer assistance, strong
but lightweight ceramic armor plates, and even had nifty new devices to filter
oxygen right out of seawater. The artificial gills could not be relied upon for
primary life support (hence the airtanks) but it was another of the comforting
redundancies available to those who served in their chosen capacities.

Even with all those features, the Tritonis suits were a steal at around 225 thousand
dollars; compared to Terminatus (over 30 million) and the Psykana (much of which
was handcrafted, but still pegged at over 5 million in materials value) armored
combat suits.

Sgt. Angelo De Leon woke up, groggy. The suit was rated for greater pressures
than just banging into things, and that fact was perhaps what he owed his life.
He tried to rub at his aching head, then only later remembered he had a helmet on.

He opened his eyes and saw nothing but murky darkness. He checked the power
meter on his HUD and switched on both lights and radio. "Tritonis Lead, to Tritonis
Team. Report in. Repeat. This is Tritonis Lead to Tritonis Teams... or anyone.
Anyone out there?"

He heard the click-buzz of radio contact. "Tritonis Lead, this is Tritonus Four. Ota
here, sir."

Another buzz and "Tritonus Five; Katagiri, reporting in."

"Tritonus Two, Takahashi. Damn shame about that Toyota NaVis, sarge. You really
messed it up when you hit it with your face."

"Tritonus Eight, Nakajima. I got separated from my team, sir."

"All right, I can see some of you. I'm blinking my headlamps right now; everyone
form up on me."

One by one, shapes emerged from the gloom. Including himself, there were seven
that got through the attack. He hoped those missing, including the two other team
leaders, were safe somewhere back at Tokyo-3.

Someone else approached. The differences between their suits went more than just
being white, instead of their customary marine green. Its shoulders bulged out
more, and had both arms free instead of the left being encased in a drill. The
helmet was conical, instead of the flat transparent slabs they had.

"Psykana Attache; Zane. I am at your disposal, sargeant." After a brief pause. "I
believe Tritonis Three is around here somewhere, but unconscious. There are a two
more of Sargeant Nakajima's team... hm... not too far away."

"Ah, Chaplain Ortigas. Good to have you aboard." The others were moodily silent, still
uncomfortable with being around someone blatantly telepathic. There were three
Tritonis Teams, and his command squad had five members instead of the regulars'
eight. An attached psyker evened out the team.

Perhaps it was that he found the weirdness more comfortable than being normal.
God knew he tolerated a lot of insanity from his own crew. Perhaps it was enough
to have someone whose name sounded similar to his own, and could perhaps share
in the suffering.

"Sarge. Permission to know what the fuck is going on?" Takahashi asked with a
salute.

De Leon turned He turned to see the younger soldier approach. His irreverence
aside, Takahashi was a solid fighter, even if he had a voice that always seemed at
the edge of open panic. 'Heh. So of course he gets to carry the radio.'

"What does it look like? We're in the belly of the whale." Only two other people
there got the reference. He sighed. "All right. For some reason we're still alive. Let's
gather up the others and see about getting out of here. Morino, give me a few
pings."

The command squad was composed entirely of specialists in some manner, and
even his suit had overcharged underwater engines. It also kept the overall cost of
hydrosuits down; hot-swappable components was an NHHIS philosophy that
whoever built their new suits thoroughly employed.

"Whoa, hey!" the marine with sentry pack whistled out. "There's a huge structure
close by. Should I go to active ping to see how big it is?"

"No, get the computer to work out a first residual map. Aand... fuck. We might have
a little problem here." A number flashed on the depth gauge: 000.

"What does that mean?" the others began to mutter. "This is seawater, I'm sure of
it..." Takahashi added, feeling the resistance to his waving movement. "And I know
we're -not- at sea level. What other place reads zero to water pressure? Are we in
SPACE? HOLY FUCK, WE'RE LOST IN SPA-"

"Okay, that's enough of that." Sgt. De Leon used more than the necessary force
to thwap his subordinate upside the headcase. "Let's find out the others
that our psyker mentioned. We'll figure out things later."

Technically, the man was still a civilian; but everyone had to deal with uncomfortable
new necessities. There were nine transponder signals. As the former pastor had
mentioned only three people, there were six corpses out there.

He sighed. The hydrosuits were also made in such a way that it was easy to
scavenge capacitors and oxygen tanks from another.

He shared the data and assigned the others to retrieve... whatever they could
use. Out of some alliterative fit, he took Ota and Ortigas towards the distress
beacon close to the structure. The depths were utterly devoid of light, with their
own lamps barely able to light up ten feet in front of them.

Crystal capacitors were hideously efficient. The teams decided that it might cost
them their sanity to understand how they worked; but it was enough to know that
with apparatus designed to extract breathable air from seawater, their air tanks
could be stretched out up to several hours more than just their contents. De Leon
felt some shame that he felt much more relief at finding the capacitors and air
tanks still mostly full, than sadness and regret at seeing the Tritonis soldier had a
cracked faceplate.

That done, they could now turn their attention to the huge structure nearby. The
murky conditions and limited sonar meant they had very little idea of just how big
it was. The portion they could see seemed to be a massive carved pillar. It was
several man-lengths wide, and etched with eerie geometric lines.

The chaplain moved close and ran his palm over the strange stone; like dark ebony
but marbled with green bands. He traced a line through the patterns and shuddered.
Tritonis suits were self-contained, made for hours (even days) of operations, but
everyone felt cold for some reason.

"I... don't know what this is..." muttered the psychic. "But, I'm willing to bet that
all of this... from the base of this pillar up to the top... it's all one single line,
never intersecting itself."

"That's insane..." the sargeant said, amazed at the dedication... or compulsive
insanity... of the builders.

"I know."

Ota began running a high-resolution scan with his sonar, and their shared link
began to show more pillars, what looked like towers and crenellations, spheres and
odd shapes, jutting sections with even more odd protrusions, perhaps even
statues the size of skyscrapers... all in all, like a city, wrapped around an irregular
and unknowable mass. He began to hyperventilate.

"Rl'yeh! We've found Rl'yeh!" he screamed out, his voice breaking.

"You're... surprisingly well-read." Sgt. De Leon said offhand, to the big guy of
the group. "And, enough. You're acting like Takahashi."

"To be fair, it could also be Atlantis. Or Lemuria."

"You're not helpiiing..." he added to the psyker.

Shortly after, the others began to arrive. Their numbers bolstened, the Tritonis Kill
Teams had to consider their options. For the moment, they had to merge into one
team. Their second problem; they had nothing to kill.

"We can't hope for rescue. Who cares about us grunts? We'll have to get out of
here on our own, while we still have air and power."

"How do we do that if we don't even know which way is up, sarge?" asked Katagiri.

"First, how big is this thing?" he asked Ota.

"Kilometers wide or tall... at the least."

"Looks like we don't have a choice... maybe there's an air pocket somewhere. We
don't even know -what- this thing is... maybe there's something in it we can use."
Redistributing the air and power cells of the dead soldiers improved their situation
only slightly, but it made them all uneasy anyway.

"It's NOT R'lyeh!" De Leon found himself shouting again and again as they started
looking around for possible entrances. "Shut up already!"

It was a city of some sort, that was clear enough. There were some hints that it was
made for man-sized beings but none of them could find any break in the material, as if
the whole thing was cut out of one large chunk of rock.

"Hey, the material's different here!" Takahashi said over comms a while later. There
was a clear fissure, and a rough pitted stretch. "I think we have bare rock. This line
here goes in deep, it separates the city from natural terrain, maybe. This line..." he
indicated a lesser channel fading off into the distance at an angle "if we trace it,
think we'll end up somewhere interesting?"

"Let's hope for useful." the marine sargeant mused. The troops followed the line
as it curved up (or down?), their suits at minimal power mode. After several more
minutes, the line split into two, curving away on opposite directions. The material
ahead was different; smoother and somewhat reflective.

Takahashi pressed down on it, feeling its somewhat rubbery texture. "Think it's a
hatch or something?" he asked. Before the sargeant could warn him off, he pressed
his arm drill to it and experimentally tried to chip off a section for inspection.

The waters shifted, and from both sides rocky layers surged and came together.
The Tritonis yelped and skipped back. They watched as the layers separated a bit,
shut again, then finally again retreated back into the unseen depths.

"Everybody lights off!" Sgt. De Leon spat out, quickly dousing his own. Everyone else
complied almost immidiately.

"...going by the curvature... I'd have to say this may form a sphere at least a
hundred meters across." Chaplain Ortigas commented.

"...it's an eye!" Takahashi screeched. "It's a friggin' eye!"

"...we're gonna die..." someone said hoarsely. "We're dead meat. Kami-sama, how big do
you think its -teeth- are?

"...no, we're not. Everybody just shut up, and think." De Leon too had to take several
deep calming breaths. "Okay. As long as we don't disturb it, we're safe. It's not going
to eat us... we're tiny. There's no point, it's like trying to eat a mosquito. We just
don't give it a reason to notice and try to swat us... hell, it might not even be able
to. Water would slow down something this big... huh. Relax, you bastards." He gave
an encouraging laugh. "So far, it looks like we're pretty safe."

"... are... you sure, sir?"

"...no, I'm not sure. But this thing isn't our problem."

"uh... why are we whispering?" Ota asked. "I mean, it doesn't affect radio that much,
after all. If it's capable of detecting us, then volume doesn't matter."

A pause. De Leon lifted a finger. "Good point. All right, let's backtrack. Don't touch
the... skin, or whatever the hell that is."

That said, it was still a somber group that drifted back. They were each trying to
accept the fact that their situation was hopeless. They all knew that they might just
be burning air and energy in purposeless activity, but that was better than lying
around waiting to die.

They heard a sound, like a bell from a distance, and a pulse traveled through the
waters. Each felt a strange tingle in their hearts, with the psyker giving an "oh-ho!" of
sudden exultation. Then the waters parted powerfully, they were all swept aside as
something of unimaginable size moved with hurried purpose.

And then, they heard it... a very familiar roar.

-o-
-o-

Shinji felt the white Evangelion go limp as soon as they came out the other side(?)
of the Dirac Sea. He felt cold; as if the very waters were sapping his strength. He
felt the feral mind of his Evangelion retreat, but leaving him enough command over
its body. Again, he could only guess at his synch level - it was easier to notice
intensities of pain than numbness.

The Titanicus upgrade, with all accoutrements of T-type equipment, could turn the
Evangelion from a tactical face into an unstoppable strategic one. Up to fifteen
days of operation, the heaviest armor mankind ever devised, and some of the most
ludicrously dangerous weapons systems ever made... it had everything that he
could possibly want. Hell, the damn engineers of NNHIS even included anti-
radiation measures and survival stocks; as if the battlefield to come would end up
with -Principio Eternus- alone and its pilot the last of humanity, amidst a vast and
broken wasteland.

Pity that what he had was the abbreviated Type-T version. It lacked even simple
things like searchlights. Evangelion eyes could see in the dark... but not in the total
absence of light. He had no idea how far 'down' he was, or what lay beyond the inky
void.

'Okay. The only thing that would keep this a blatantly stupid move instead of an
outright suidical one is if I manage to survive until I get rescued.' He had no doubt
that the others would figure something out somehow; poor Akagi-sensei, but she
was dependable that way.

Something large and spiny obligingly slammed into his back.

'Agh! All right, this isn't unexpected either.' He turned around to face his new
adversary. 'At least now I get to see what I need to kill...' He could use an AT-field,
just not to any useful strength. An Angel should be able to neutralize an opposing
AT-field, not to prevent it from forming... only when a pattern exists could it be
countered and destroyed.

Shinji did not understand the principles behind the Dirac Sea; he was intelligent, true
enough, but no scientific genius. His brilliance lay with sociopolitical strategy, and in
battlefield improvisation.

He could not see it, but it had him in a tight tentacular grip. Something was sucking
at the back plates of his neck armor, trying to rip the Type-T battery packs right off
to get at the entry plug hatch.

He felt blinding pain, and then nothing more...

-o-

Shinji felt that things were odd, but for some reason also that it was not important
enough to worry about. Dreams were out-of-context situations. He did not explore
why he was inside an empty train, or where he was going. It was enough that he
was in it. Nor did he question why there was a younger version of himself at the
opposite seat.

His head swam with sensations; he could taste the sounds passoing through the
train's aluminum skin, and feel the colors with his eyes. Open space would probably
have been painful, but the strange mundanity of the situation probably protected
him from the worst effects. It might be a metaphor somewhere, but he did not care
to examine it. The train went into a tunnel, blanking out with darkness the scenery
outside the windows and muffling most of the noise.

"Who are you?" he asked the other.

"I am the self that watches itself." the boy replied.

"... and of course, not even here would I escape pedantic statements." Shinji
sighed. Then again, perhaps Asuka was right... he did somewhat like punishing
himself. He understood, somehow; he had sworn never to let go of that sense of
wonder he felt so long ago. He must always be a child inside, always eager to
face the world, to learn, and to cherish his loved ones with all of his being.
"Is it really so hard to speak plainly?"

"Language is insufficient." his younger self shrugged. "Words are merely vehicles
for the truth, not truth itself. I am the Shinji Ikari as Shinji Ikari sees Shinji Ikari.
But the Shinji Ikari is always two."

"Two?" He did not expect any less than three; the id, ego and superego... and
would not have been surprised to find even more personality divisions than that.

"There is the Shinji Ikari according to what Shinji Ikari says Shinji Ikari is. Then
there is the Shinji Ikari that others see. The one that watches, and the one that is
watched."

The space within the train seemed to expand, and again Shinji found no reason to
think it unnatural. Others wearing his face appearing in front of him did not disturb
him in the least, even if he could actually say to himself '... I should really be
freaking out right now.'

One Shinji seemed to hunch into himself, arms straight down and hands together
almost protectively over his groin. He looked up and his eyes were full of yearning. He
had on an apron over his bland indoors wear. "I am the Shinji Ikari in Misato
Katsuragi's mind. Do I want to just disappear?"

One more Shinji had a devilish, nearly psychotic grin. His plug suit and hair was still
slick with LCL. "I am the Shinji Ikari in Asuka Langley-Sohryu's mind. Am I strong
enough?"

Another stood relaxed, but wary. His gaze flicked from side to side, alert for any
sudden threats. He had on a black long-sleeved shirt, which Shinji rather liked; since
it reminded him of a Return the Jedi Luke Skywalker. "I am the Shinji Ikari in
Rei Ayanami's mind. Have I prepared myself for what must be done?"

Beside him stood one with arms akimbo and confident half-smile, his very demeanor
seeming to glow with golden heroism. He did not have the build, nor the
'S' on his chest, but held all the unstoppable idealism. Not even the peaked and
skull-faced black cap to complete the Comissar outfit disturbed the optimism of the
scene. "I am the Shinji Ikari in Mana Kirishima's mind. Do I really care about what
happens to those who need me?"

Next up had his palms together in a prayerful pose, but when he looked up his eye
glittered with cold fury. "I am the Shinji Ikari in Maya Ibuki's mind. How many of
my enemies must I see broken before I am satisfied?"

And so on. To mold a scenario, Shinji necessarily needed to know enough of how
other people would think, and how to present them with what they wanted. Their
convictions had to resonate for anything useful to happen. Apparently, Gendo Ikari
would occasionaly and disturbingly see his son wearing the longer hairstyle of his
wife. Ritsuko Akagi had a Shinji contemplating orange-tinted sunglasses in his
hand. Toji had a buddy-Shinji in the uniform and headband of an old shounen cliche
protagonist; the deliquent's boss and school 'guardian'. Kensuke's was much
similar, only weilding a rocket launcher. On and on and on... so many Shinjis, as
seen by so many people... they filled the horizon.

'Why the hell should a train cabin have a horizon?'

He blinked, and things were as they once were. He had to look up, for his younger
self was not creepily close. "Are you afraid? We can never control the ourselves that
is in others. We are always incomplete. We are in pain."

He was. As he had said before, who wears the face of humanity for him? Giving the
fighters better ways to fight also decreased their chances of getting killed. His eyes
were wide, his pulse was loud; he was terrified.

"There is always pain." Shinji replied hoarsely. "There is always fear. There is
always sacrifice."

"It hurts. Make it stop."

"No." Shinji felt a pang of guilt, as the tone of his force made his younger self
cringe. "It hurts more not to have them, than to suffer just for their sake. I won't
sacrifice them."

He heard Asuka's voice as from afar. "... I hate those who pretend. It's bad enough
to be weak, why would anyone want that?"

The emotions of all those months ago, it came flooding back. His hands were
shaking again... the rage at his own weakness, it only he was faster! If only he
could kill with a look! The taste of desperation was at the roof of his mouth.
Fortunately he had remembered... victory comes from strength and skill, but not
necessarily all from one source.

The Evangelion saved Asuka. That incident helped mold his later choices. What was
he without the Evangelions? He respected and was grateful for the power of the
machine gods. The power of humanity was in its ability to fully use whatever tools
they had at their disposal.

Then, Rei's voice. "... it is true. He has killed me." Shinji flinched, at the look his
younger self gave him. He could hardly believe he made that decision, or that Rei
would so willingly follow it. That scared him too, and it felt a piece of his soul was
still scarred from that event.

By comparison, choking someone to death with his own bare hands did not really
bother him all that much.

"He is afraid." he was told.

The harsh, booming shout of a Legio Terminator "... and WE SHALL KNOW NO FEAR!"

"He is afraid of being hurt."

Misato's voice, that night so long ago; and the heat of her body around him.
"Promise me you won't abandon me, Shinji? You won't just go away?"

"And then he deserted them."

"I came back!" he shot back.

As expected, his younger self was cold and unforgiving as a cyclone. "He wants to
do everything. He wants to do nothing. He wants power to save them all. He rejects
the power that he may actually use. I don't understand anything about this..."

"There are... different forms of power. I had to... I had to move fast, but the only
other way... the world isn't ready. So much blood was already shed after Impact;
we couldn't afford another world war while under attack from the Angels."

-Principio Eternus-... whatever happened to the unity they shared? He was unused
to being rejected, and the few instances cut deeper than it would have anyone who
had to live with being 'normal'. 'I tried so hard to be worthy of whatever advantages
I have to use for my scenario...'

His father's voice "... I do what must be done. I will not apologize."

"Guh."

"He already knows they're all going to die. He is afraid to admit that he's already
preparing for that time. It would be stupid not to have a plan when things go
wrong. That's why thinking about it hurts." His younger self leaned closer and
whispered into his ear. "Shinji-kun Is Not A Good Boy."

Shinji clutched his head with both hands and screamed.

-o-

-o-

Mana Kirishima rubbed at her left arm while waiting for the meeting to begin. It
was her first time to be allowed into NERV's Conference Room, where the
developing legends of humanity's potentially last age planned out how to snatch
victory out the very gullet of defeat.

The airconditioning was set too low, it was not a large as she had expected, and
everyone was in a bad mood. She had a feeling their planning sessions were not
nearly as 'fun' as she had assumed.

Eventually Ritsuko arrived, with Maya following behind and carrying the projection
equipment. Everyone turned to her expectantly.

"Finally!" Asuka said, banging her fist upon the table. "What do you have for us,
Ritsuko-sensei?"

Ritsuko's blond hair glistened dully under the light. "It's only been a few hours,
Asuka. I may try to break physics as we know it, but I can't overcome the limits of
my own biology." She sank to her seat and rubbed her forehead. "For the
moment... let's go over the data before we formulate any conclusions. Maya?"

"Uh, okay. Ahem. The Angel. As far as we can tell, it exists within this region of
altered space, supported by an inverted AT-field." She changed the image into a
more helpful diagram showing a colored funnel over Tokyo-3. "As a side-effect it
also creates a strong electromagnetic disturbance in the atmosphere above it. It
can manipulate the conductivity of objects within this space to fulfill different
modes of action..."

A short video loop of the bomb scarabs and a picture of Evangelion Unit Four
showed onscreen.

"It's a tool user." Misato hissed out. "I don't know about you folks, but that
sounds like bad news to me."

Kozo Fuyutsuki added in his lecturing tone "Humanity is the apex predator on this
planet because of our our ability to alter the environment to our advantage. No
animal has ever proven too strong for a determined man with a spear." Perhaps
it was best that mankind's worst enemy has always been itself, as given their
increasing tendencies to drive other creatures into extinction.

'I wonder if this is how a tiger feels, when it finally realizes it's the one being
hunted?' he mused. The professor glanced aside to Gendo, who looked only faintly
disapproving.

"Unit Four. Is it recoverable?" Gendo asked, a warning note to his voice... he did
not want to give out any hints to the Dummy Plug system.

"It doesn't seem to have a pilot, but the method the Angel uses to control it is
still.. undefined." Ritsuko replied. "Yes, I know pilot Ikari managed to duplicate it
-somehow- ... but we'll have to ask him that when we get him back. I'm not going
to waste any time on something too subjective to be useful. There's so much we
don't know, and only having Unit Four can we test if it's stil viable as our own
weapon."

"The most important thing right now is recovering Shinji!" Misato shot out.

"I agree, Katsuragi."

Everyone blinked, again surprised at Gendo's behaviour. Outwardly, the man's face
was as grim as ever. The boy would serve just as well as a martyr, but he could
guess SEELE was likewise as perplexed as to how far the prophecies were still
applicable.

"Uhm. I hate to say this... but whatever you decide to do, the UN gives us a time
window of two, maybe three hours, from the instant the Angel goes active again.
That's how long it would take for the nukes to converge."

"Kaji!" Misato gasped.

"What? I'm only the messenger. You're the ones who tried to so hard to convince
the world just how dangerous it would be to let the Angels claim Tokyo-3. So... " He
leaned back on his chair and grinned rakishly. "Good job, there."

Misato took deep calming breaths, reminding herself that Kaji did not mean
whatever he implied. After all, everyone would make sure he remained at ground
zero if the worst should happen.

"We have sufficient N2 stocks to carry out a similar strike, their help in that area is
not... necessary." Gendo added. "Akagi. How feasible is this situation for the
Angel?"

"You just said earlier that recoving the pilot was our first priority!" Misato shouted
at him. He frowned slightly.

"Unit One must be recovered intact. One must plan for the worst before taking the
optimistic option, Katsuragi. However, we still have two other Evangelions if the
Angel makes recovery far too risky. Do you believe pilot Ikari would have it any
other way?"

It was disturbing to them how easily they could understand Shinji's actions if put
under context of 'What would Gendo Ikari do, if he wasn't such an amoral and
self-serving bastard?'

Ritsuko turned back to the screen. "The Dirac Sea and its shadow has a ratio of
about three and fourteen." She set aside the feeling those numbers were significant
for later examination. "It can constrict or expand its region of altered space, but for
now it has a diameter of just under eight meters."

"Barely enough to fit our N2 mines." Misato bit her lip, unsure if she should feel
relieved.

"Well, if we plan on doing -anything- at all, then the Evangelions should try
widening that hole. And no, I don't know how. The Dirac Sea is a theoretical model,
not until today have we actually considered seeing a practical example. Even with
the AT-field, the energy required to keep it stable is... ungh." Ritsuko huffed. "I need
to run some more calculations. Just assume that the Evas can expand the domain...
you figure out methods of recovery or attack."

"How long can...Shin-.. the Evangelion last?"

"The Evangelion had reserve power up to fifteen hours of full operation, Misato-
sempai." Maya replied. "At minimal power mode, it can stretch those reserves to...
two weeks."

"Of course, the pilot would die of hypothermia long before that, anyway." Ritsuko
put in.

"Well, how about keeping most life support active?" Asuka asked, if the same thing
should happen to her.

"Entry plug life support is a... side-effect... of the Evangelion's own internal
activity. I'd say... three days."

"It would be INSANE to expect the Angel would do NOTHING for that long. We don't
know what's happening in there or what it's going to do next. We need to move
before it does!" Misato stood up and looked at everyone's faces in turn. Her gaze
lingered on Kaji a bit, then up towards the ceiling. "Okay, you said we can just
assume that we can open up the Angel, thanks Ritsuko. But how do you think our
chances are of just yanking out Unit One?"

Two Evangelions to open up the Dirac Sea, one to dive into it, and a Trident to reel
the catch back in. It was an incredibly risky plan, whereas just mass-bombing the
shit out of Leliel would cut their losses with just one Eva.

"You're actually lucky. While I may have said something about the Dirac Sea
leading to another universe, it would be silly to imagine a universe filled with an
infinity of seawater. The problem is the third and fourth dimensions... do we have
a chain long enough? Do we have enough time to reach Unit One and pull it back
out? What would happen if the Angel is somehow killed while the Evangelions are
inside... would they be stuck in another dimension, or just simply die along with it?"

"You can understand why the UN is so nervous about this, Misato?" Kaji said with a
sigh. "The Angels... they're getting too unpredictable. What you're hoping for is too
risky..."

"But we're going to try anyway, aren't we?" Asuka shouted. "What kind of world
are we fighting for if it won't even allow us the chance to save those who defend it?
Just because were ready to give our lives is no reason to take it for granted, the
Greater Good isn't just about the few sacrificing for the many! No, dammit! We
have to do this - even the many have their duty! And that's to TRUST us, those who
actually know what the hell the full consequences are!"

"Calm down, Asuka...! It's a reasonable fear... and we have plenty of time. You
can't really blame them for being human. And I'M Operations Director- and I say
the risks are worth it." She looked up and licked her lips. "All right. From now on
we're planning Operation... uhm..."

Ritsuko sighed. "Didn't we all already agree that you weren't allowed to make up
any more Operation names? Look, I'll make it easy for you." She reached for her
laptop and pressed a few keys. "Here's a random string generator. Three words,
verb, adjective, noun; as you like it."

She watched the computer process the command and spit out a name. There
was a distinct 'poing!' as a clump of hair broke off from gel holding it down. The
scientist groaned and palmed her face. Misato looked over her shoulder and quipped
"Nice!"

"All right, everyone! Let's get this session really started!" Misato grinned hugely.
"From now on we put our faith in Blast Hard Cheese!"

-o-
-o-

Shinji Ikari may show such diamond control to others who see him, he was no
emotionless freak. He could present whatever face others expected, but could
never lie to himself. He was a human being, and as such had emotions... he could
not deny these, nor how they colored his thoughts.

It had been a long time since he had accept these in pure, searing form. He heard
their voices so close by... and despite whatever idealizations he raised, had to deal
with the tide of pain, fear, and the ginormous (if actually normal and predictable)
teenage lust. His plains bubbled and boiled from the surface of his consciousness...

Take all possible eventualities of a point in three-dimensional space and it becomes
another point in five dimensions. There was a great blank spot in front of his vision,
and all around it were uncountable voices... asking what do, what to think, why
is it so; do we need to hurt so much in being alone?

Then...

An eagle screeched. Thunder broke. Light flashed and his vision cleared.

A regal voice said, sneering. "Something seems missing here. Where is the Shinji
Ikari that I seek in my mind? Where is the young king that stands at the limits of
my vision?"

Shinji blinked. "Farseer-sensei?"

The churning energies of the Warp faded from behind her back. She sat beside him
and patted his head. "I apologize, child. We are conversant pieces, so of course we
cannot be considered your 'subconscious' motivations. It took some time for us to
realize your mind was not in a dreaming state."

She tilted her head aside. "The simplest answer would be... we are under chemical
influence. That is why context solutions that should have been second nature to you
failed to notice anything amiss."

His younger version looked up in surprise, which was all that Shinji needed to know
it was something beyond the weirdness inherent even in dreams. "Who ARE you?"
he hissed.

The boy cringed and stepped back. "I am... Shinji Ikari as... Shinji Ikari sees
himself..."

"True enough." the Farseer replied. "And at the same time, a blatant falsehood."

There was a wrenching sound, and the tip of sword sparking with energy cut around
the doors of the cabin. A gloved hand peeled off the metal, and into the ludicrously
adjusted space stepped a Space Marine in blood-red armor. He had to bend to fit
inside. "Where is he, that is the commander of my will? Where is he that lays the
foundations of my faith?"

The same happened to the other door at the far end of the cabin, only the sword
was carrion-black, and sparked with tendrils of purplish energy. The Chaos Space
Marine entered, his spiked armor oozing with malice. "Where IS the bright lord that
shines through the mist of CHAOS? Where is he that doubts, where is he that
denies, where is he whose wrath would shatter this world?"

The boy stepped back, and seemed frightened. Shinji felt the reality of that fear, a
portion of his soul stood there... that it sees only itself? But... even if hfe considered
these other fragments of his personality separate, if simply for entertainment
value... there was no reason for their presence to be unexpected.

The Space Marine and the Chaos Marine saw each other at opposite ends, with
weapons similar yet totally opposite. They bared their teeth at each other.

"Oh, please. You finally get the chance to become corporeal again and what's the
first thing on your mind? Fight each other. Again." the Farseer sighed. She was
still rubbing Shinji's head, as if he was a kitten or something.

From outside there was a loud clanking and banging noise, and the roar of mutiple
engines, and a growling shout "OI! WHO CUT ME BRAKES? WHICH BUTTON MAKES
DE AFTA'BURNA GO?"

Something dark and large passed in front of the windows, and then a gut-wrenching
impact. There was the sound of tearing metal, the feel of cold rushing air on his
face; the knowing the entire train was going offf the rails and inexplicably flying
through the air with the greatest of ease... tumbling, sky, ground, sky, ground, was
that a potted plant? Then, WHAM!

Darkness.

-o-

It was a familiar sound, the gentle roll of waves upon the beach. It was a familiar
feeling, the cold shore winds stroking his skin. He tried to sit up and open his eyes.
"Ungh...!" His mouth tasted bitter, and it was as if knives were being driven into his
skull.

"Be at ease, my young king. Even the mind must acknowledge that it is born of the
brain, which is held aloft by the body. Slowly, we are recovering connections to
your true self..."

Blinking, slowly Shinji took in that he was in that beach so long ago. He looked up to
see his younger self standing upon the waters. He clutched at the back of his head,
feeling a burning pain there. His shoulders, his wrists, and his left side just below the
ribs felt as if pierced by large meathooks.

Beside him, the Farseer took off her mask, and she sneered again at the false vision.
Her armor was bone-white, and faintly flickering with sparks of energy. Her night-
black skirt and cloak fluttered in the wind, eldritch runes glowing blue upon the cloth.

Behind her, the Space Marine and Chaos Marine approached; twisted reflections of
each other. They stood superhumanly tall, the weight of their armor sinking deep
prints into the sand, and their weapons were already at the ready.

Behind them, was the monstrously large form of the Warboss, which dwarfed even
the fruits of Adeptus Astartes implants and armor. He thumped at his own head with
his Power Claw. The energy through the blades tingled, and he laughed; showing the
jagged teeth inside his oversized jaw. He walked over, hunched and clumsy, in his
clunky assortment of boxy parts and gears and oversized guns that served as his
'Eavy Armor.

And behind him, was a mangled train wreck. One of the cabins was pierced through
by a wartrukk, which then exploded for no readily apparent reason.

Shinji decided to ignore whatever all of this was metaphor for; but had to admit it
it was such a relief to see them again.

He turned back to the ocean. "I see... for all of the Angel's grand gestures, and its
ominous appearance... we were all misled."

"It is not a shadow." hissed the Chaos Marine. "It is a MIRROR. Even as it fills our
veins full of poison, and sets our flesh stinging from corruption; what it seeks most is
the SECRET by which we defeat beings much greater than ourselves."

"I want it to stop hurting..." his younger self whimpered. One by one, other versions
of Shinji Ikari began to rise from the ocean; the waters were silvery under the sun,
and each persona showed a flickering reflection.

There were hundreds, each distinct, and slowly even more were appearing. Every life
that the boy had touched, every mind that he had ever felt, had a vision that they
believed was the real person.

"... what is this?" Shinji asked, grimacing. "I can hear... so much weeping. So much
regret."

"I don't want anybody to ever die again... I don't want to lose what I know now..."
the boy whispered. The others around him echoed. "I know it now. I still don't
understand. They all die. Everything dies."

"Where is it that the xeno may place its trust? In its terrible power? In the
multiplication of its abilities, in copying our force of arms? No army is big enough to
conquer the galaxy." The Space Marine lifted his Power Sword and shouted "But faith
alone can overturn the universe!"

"The great enemy lacks imagination." the Farseer mused. "The immortal fears death
most of all, and cannot imagine how it is that we keep on succeeding on what should
have been impossible. We Eldar know this best, the pain of losing such a light upon
the cosmos, the absence made even keener by how long it has shared its warmth."

"Wot's dis... wossname, doing' being' all emo en stuff? We's not gonna hold back
from stompin' no pimply grot."

"You do not know the meaning of SACRIFICE, creature; and you are as gods unto
yourselves. Your bloods calls out, but no one answers. You cannot offer the Bright
Lord that which is a DEBASEMENT of the power he already holds...!"

"He pretends." the boy snarled. "He is alone, but not alone. If he does not stop
hurting, then he will die...!"

"What is the terror of death...?" intoned the Space Marine. "That we die our work
incomplete!" He stabbed his sword into the sand. "What is the joy of life...?" He
knelt and before it, then drew it again, to point at the sea and the vision there.
"To die knowing our task is done!"

"... we know death." the Farseer said. "And we know suffering. Let us educate
you on your misconceptions of their meaning."

Shinji took a deep breath and stood up. He gave his younger self a commanding gaze.
"Answer me this, then... where is the Shinji Ikari AS THE ANGELS SEE HIM?"

His younger self screamed and began to claw at his own face. "It hurts...! I don't
want to go back...!" Angels did not even realize humans were sentient beings for a
long time. The Evangelion, their enemy, they could not concieve these could be
anything other than a corrupt and flawed versions of themselves. His scheeches of
pain were echoed by the reflections all around, the frenzied sounds mixing together
into a throaty roar.

All of them began to writhe, and pull their eyeballs from their eyesockets. Bright white
light issued forth from within their skulls. Blood dripping down their faces turned black,
while their skin and clothes seemed to rot away from their bodies in cracking flakes.
The silvery surface of the ocean flowed up, etching away at the flesh, burning what
it touched.

Shinji winced, he could feel an echo of the horrific experience. As each of his other
selves finally burst into bluish flame, his own breath steamed up. He gasped hard for
cool air into his lungs.

Mist rolled in from the sea, from the evaporated waters beneath false pyres. A figure
stepped out from the fog, long-limbed and clawed. It was humanoid, roughly the size
of a young male teen; but utterly featureless. Its skin seemed to be formed of some
black leathery material that drank in all light, and sparks of energy crawled across its
body. Its face was noseless, but had large round glowing eyes, like a night
scavenger caught by surprise. It opened its beak-like maw, and screeched. Strange
burning light shone from deep within.

Other similar figures emerged, more and more, and their animal screeches began to
fill the air.

This was how the Angels saw Shinji Ikari; something they did not understand but
became f their boogeyman. It was the furthest they could imagine, something so
intrinsically inimical to their kind. The power within the Evangelions... beings of pure
murder.

"I accept this offering in the spirit in which it is given." Shinji said flatly. He glanced
aside to his advisors. "They are afraid, because they do not understand. They hate,
because they do not grasp." He smiled thinly. "Now let them know, let them feel, and
let them see what it's like to have despair. "

The twisted reflections screeched and charged out en masse. Shinji felt the Farseer's
arms envelop him again, and they both teleported away just before they would have
been overrun.

"Now dis is more like it! I'z been waitin'!" the Warboss yelled out eager, hobbling
foward and swinging his weapons. "It's time for a roight and propa... WAAAGH!"
His double blasta-cannon ripped into the center of the swarm, but the shadowy
mass merely had other figures clamber over the fallen.

"THEN LET IT BE DONE! CLEANSE!" The Space Marine dived into combat. "PURGE!" The
Bolt Pistol in his right hand scattered a group. "KILL!" With the Power sword in his left
hand, he cut a swath through their ranks. "FOR THE EMPEROR...!"

"BY THE MIGHTY AXE OF KHORNE!" The Chaos Marine kept a two-handed grip on his
sword, but baleful flames licked at the blade and he could lash out with it as a
cleaving whip of unholy energy. "LET THIS WORLD BE CUT OPEN!" One of the
shadowy creatures gashed into his face with its claws, and his blood pulsed out.
It combusted into black flame into anything it touched, and the thing that dared
wounded him died screaming and in pain.

"DAKKA DAKKA! STOMP EN SLASH! WAAAAGH!" The Warboss sycthed through whole
packs of the enemy with his massive Power Claw, popping heads right off at the neck.
"Whoza doin, ya runts? IZZAT ALL YA GOTZ?"

The chaotic scratching, screeching, biting black mass suddenly parted. One of the
shadow figures was half-crouched at the other open end, like a wolf baying at the
moon. It opened its mouth and SCREAMED out a beam of boiling black energy.

'...mugyuu?' thought the Warboss, as the blast knocked his bulk up into the air and
crashed on his back. He wobbled like a hapless green turtle; and roared in outrage.
He was instantly swarmed over by more of the enemy.

There was a boom, as the Ork set off a stikkbomb point-blank in front of his own
face just to give himself some breathing room

The Space Marine and his Traitor counterpart were hard to pin down; every single
movement killed. One of the shadow reflections opened its mouth to scream out its
beam of pain and fear and hate distilled; but it just ate a Bolt round before it could
fire anything off.

Something clanked off his shoulder, and he turned to look. Over the mellee, somehow
the two engineered superhuman warriors now stood pauldron to pauldron. It took
great strength of will not to turn his swing and just cut down the traitor where he
stood. "What is this lunacy? Can you not fight by yourself?"

"I assure you, this is NOT by choice. I shall recompense your insult LATER, but for
now... look. Even I know best to stand aside a green behemoth throwing a tantrum."

Indeed, the Warboss was going berserk. He seemed to have forgone shooting the
enemy with unusually large-caliber automatic slug guns, but to maul them with a
clumb made out of other shadow creatures squished together and bound by glue-
like spit and machine oil.

"And have I MENTIONED he is ON FIRE?"

Shadow creatures clawing at the Warboss so long tended to combust too, leading
them to screeching away in pain, landing on the others filling the beach. Thereby
setting even -more- aflame. And so on.

More enemies were rising out from the tides. A distance away, on a small rise in the
terrain, Shinji watched the battle unfold. 'It's... like an infection.' he thought. 'But
they're not antibodies, they stand like a dam... or...'

"A firewall?"

"How long can they last? This... it's still a metaphor, isn't it? Yet... it's more than
that too. I don't understand. I can still feel the chemical imbalance."

"Now that you are conscious, we may begin trying to purge the poison." The Farseer
tilted her head aside, and touched her lips in a shushing noise. "Do you hear that?
The connections restraining our confused machine-god are being broken from the
outside. No, as long as a single human lives, we are not without hope."

The shadow creatures stopped spitting out their beam attacks from their mouths
and began to gather. Their forms flowed together into a viscous mass, growing and
rising, until all together they became a grotesque amalgamation of centipede, spider,
and arthropod parts.

It was huge, easily the size of an Evangelion. Its segmented shell had a spiny texture,
and had four oversized mantis-like arms apart from its thousands of smaller legs (that
all ended in sharp points anyway). Its head had antennae stalks instead of wiggly
tendrils, but was disgusting anyway. It let out an air-piercing shriek and showed off
its hooked mandibles.

"Oh, come on!" Shinji shouted in irritation, then palmed his own face. "You think that's
going to scare them? You just gave them a -challenge- to -enjoy-!"

"Leave the boys to their fun, child. Come, there is someone I would have you meet."

He gave the warring pieces of his personality one last look, and turned away. He
could feel their undisguised joy at the carnage. He followed the Farseer into the
trees around the beach.

As the sounds of battle faded, and the deeper they went into the copse of light
deciduous trees, Shinji felt his heart lighten. The pain in his veins faded as if to
a distance. The scenery was changing, no longer what he remembered of his
hometown. There was a park beside a small river, and the feeling there... such
timeless peace and contenment...

He felt slightly euphoric, and that was what set off his unease. He did not like being
influenced, again, from the outside.

Waiting there on a bench was a woman with neck-length brown hair and a lab
coat. She turned and smiled as she saw them approach.

"Go on, Shinji." the Farseer said. "You must face this alone..."

The birds were chirping, the sun was shining, it was such a happy scene. He felt
like crying...

"Who are you...?" he asked, his throat hoarse.

The woman shook his head. "Now, that's just rude, Shin-chan. Don't your recognize
me?" Yui Ikari stood up and walked over to her son. She smiled playfully. "My,
you've grown into a strong young man, haven't you? And in ways I could never have
predicted!"

She giggled, while rubbing her palms together. How cute, and yet somehow also
terrifying beyond words. "Oh, you make me so proud!"

Her face, her smile. He could never mistake that. "...you... my mother? How?" Shinji
stood as if petrified. 'Let it really be her. Please... don't let it be another cruel trick...'

He could remember feeling safe, even if he could not remember her face, but after
that... only emptiness. Her death was the start, it shook all the world he had ever
known.

"It doesn't really surprise me though. Don't you remember what I said, the last time
we met, my precious little Shin-chan?" Yui placed her open right hand on his face,
just covering his eyes. "Humans... can become anything." she whispered.

-o-
-o-

Tokyo-3 was still at full alert. Civilians were being evacuated from their shelters,
using the secondary tunnels. Those in shelters that were breached managed to
relocate just in time, and seal the tunnel behind them.

Amazingly, there was not one civilian death. The property damage was horrendous,
but since they were still rebuilding after Iruel's attack most people were cautious
about buying things that they did not need. The residential blocks were untouched
and most of the buildings left aboveground were owned by NERV, anyway. Most
businesses were content to pay somewhat exorbitant rent rather than have to
shoulder rebuilding costs.

Military casualties... now that was a different matter.

Cerberus base grew around Trident base, as men and machinery arrived to bolster
the regiment. There was not much they could do in about one and a half weeks since
their pronouncement but to hastily throw around a few new barracks and motor
pools. Now most of those new structures were empty and still. They had to blast a
channel out from the hillsides so the water could flow down; even Lake Asahino was
not low enough for drainage. The swell of its waters allowed pleasure boats to serve
as rescue craft for those stranded in the city.

Yang looked at the reports, and sighed. He ignored the congtratulations and
indreculous looks. More than half of Tritonis Team was MIA. Those men were
supposed to be attached to landing parties based on the refit transport cruisers...
it was odd luck that they had to be called on to serve so soon.

He turned back to the videoconference screen. "No, I will not evacuate. If you
have to launch, then do so." He held up his hand to stifle further protests. "Enough.
China is strong, and you don't need me around anymore. This however, isn't a
problem that may solved by deciding to just up and invade."

Being that he was still in the command center, there were suspicious looks at
that. Yang chuckled lightly, then casually turned back to the screen.

"It's 2016." he said with a shrug. History was done; that was his own personal
credo. One had to learn from it and move on. The golden age of man was always
in the future, not the nostalgia of the past. "NERV has given over the launch window.
I suggest you make use of that while it's still possible."

He closed the connection. "...What?" he asked, amused, at the looks the others were
giving him. "You have no problem with being nuked -again- by the Americans, then
the Russians, and perhaps the French... but strikes from China bother you?"

Col. Nasuno made as if to say something, then realized it did not really matter. "We
may not have strategic reserves, but it's not going to be... pretty... if someone
'misses' the launch window." He shrugged. "It's a crazy plan anyway. So chances are
that we just might live through this."

At that, Yang had to laugh. It was somewhat bitter. "Despite everything, this place
still gives us hope. You're right, colonel, too many people died already, for us to
waste this chance."

-o-
-o-

Misato Katsuragi had a headache. She had stayed the night in her office, and just
hoped her apartment was still all right. It was a small concern, since there was still
so many more worries to work out. Pen-pen was a capable bird, she just hoped he
was not too annoyed by his fridge defrosting again.

The only important thing was taking back Unit One and Shinji.

It would be fair to say that paperwork was the bane of her existence, but it surprised
her to see how many people were willing to submit -request forms- to take a suicide
mission just to retrieve Unit One. She had no idea how all the mind mojo worked, so
was unwilling to trust anything with it. Then again, she also had no idea how
Ritsuko's plan actually worked... but she trusted Ritsuko.

It all came down to trust in the end. Being under full alert meant she was still in full
control over NERV's assets, not Gendo. She felt out of her depth, drowning in the
responsibility. The casualty figures alone...!

She touched her father's cross. She had never really been religious, but knew
enough from her own military experience the words "... the greatest love it is to give
one's life for a friend." She had half-expected complaints about her handling of the
situation, calls of incompetence... but everyone was just angry that they could not
do more.

This in contrast to the ugly mood passing through the civilians. Though amazingly
none of them had died, their experiences varied. There were those who had grown
used to the destruction, laughing about how predictable it was, trying to hide their
fear. There were those who had grown tired of living on the edge. There were also
the foreigners brought in, willingly or unwillingly. They had no idea it could get so...
wild. There was a difference between watching Evangelions on the screen and feeling
the fury of their battles shake the very earth beneath.

Her desk phone rang. "Katsuragi-san, there's some activity with the Angel. It's
expanding again." Makoto said through the receiver.

"Do we have enough power for what Ritsuko wanted?"

"Twenty-three hours of the entire output of Japan... some of the capacitors have
already overloaded. She says it's still barely more than half, but the Evangelions
would just have to try." And in a tone imitating Ritsuko "It's all experimental anyway."

"All right. How about the pilots?"

"Suited up and being taken to their Evangelions now. Oh, and of course the Trident
too." He rather liked the whole 'always ready to go' approach of the machine. "Since
it can't fit into the launch rails, it's waiting at one of the outside elevators."

Misato nodded. "Good. Let's get this done."

-o-
-o-

Pen-pen stood on the Katsuragi apartment's veranda, watching the waters drain
away. It was the night before, and Leliel's Dirac Sea was still hidden under a meter or
so of dark water. He looked left, right, then up. He gave a warbling sigh.

He wiggled his wings, and leapt. The water was cold, but he was comfortable with
both the near- boiling heat of hot springs or the near-freezing temperature of a
refrigerator. He had never before swam the ocean, though, and something in the
atavistic regions of his brain was exulting. Was it how his ancestors felt, being both
predator and prey?

He liked humans... well, not all them, but the few he knew were worth keeping their
species. They tried to restrict Leliel's region as much as they were able, but Pen-
pen was not surprised that they would so utterly fail to spot a penguin completely
bypassing their protection zones.

He knew he was somewhat of a freak; a hot springs penguin, a flightless bird that
nonetheless needed a flotation device to swim. He dived down to street level and
wadled towards the light-devouring pool in the pavement. The suction was much
less through that approach. He stared down at it, the water flow pulling at the
colorful feathers that seemed like his eyebrows. That was part of why Misato found
him worthy of recuing from the labs, he was the first bird she had ever seen that
seemed capable of expression.

He jumped into Leliel's void, knowing that there was something that only he could do.

-o-

-o-

-o-

-o-

Agh! Really, much apologies. I swore never to make another four-parter, but there was just no way to maintain pacing without making the final chapter too absurdly long again. Better a smaller bite now than waiting a month for the complete form, neh?