I've just about gotten this part half-finished. I'm still writing out later chapters as we go. Soon enough I can start writing the next part… In the meantime, we're starting off learning how Shining awakened his Stand. Disclaimer: I don't own Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Evangelion, or Anarchy Reigns.

Cruel Angel's Thesis Chapter 16: Angel of Sky, Sahaquiel

In the year 2000, a massive giant made of light had appeared when explorers tried to study an object that hit Antarctica. The massive being was hit with something and started to writhe in pain. "NO! STOP!" Professor Katsuragi managed to get his daughter to safety. "I'm sorry for everything that's happened," he said, "I wish I could have been a better father." Young Misato was confused, then saw little Rusty rushing at the giant. "Shining!" Rusty had felt something awaken within him as the giant's waves of energy hit him.

As if by instinct, he threw his hands towards the giant. As he yelled in confidence, a gigantic bubble of blue energy encased the giant. Just in time too, as the giant suddenly exploded. Most of the blast was contained, but Rusty could feel something leaking through. 'Radiation!,' he realized to himself. Luckily, with the blast gone he was able to refocus the shield on himself to block the radiation, but the explorer team wasn't so lucky. Only Misato escaped contamination due to being locked in a lead container. Eventually, rescue came. "This Stand power I've gained," Rusty said to Misato, "To remind me that I need to understand what I'm trying to block, I'll call it… Radioactive!"

"That's all we really know of that day," Shining said to Cadence as he recounted the story of how he awoke to his Stand, "Adam seemed concerned about something right before he blew. According to the Angels who's cores we've retrieved, the energy waves are identical to the virus that enables Stand potential. Being in such close proximity allowed my Stand to awaken. Without that event, I would have needed one of the arrows to awaken Radioactive. As for Misato… At first she wanted nothing more than to take revenge for the Angels."

"Until she learned what was really happening," Cadence realized. Shining nodded. "I'm honestly grateful she learned the real truth, that Adam never intended to harm anyone. Revenge is never something that should be taken. It only leaves one feeling empty." Just then, an alert came within the Geofront. Naoko ran up to the married couple. "We've just discovered the Tenth Angel. And it's a big one! Probably the biggest of them all! Everyone's down in the main comm room. You're gonna want to see this personally." The two of them looked at each other, nodded, and followed the doctor.

Down near Antarctica, Gendo frowned as he got the call. "The timing couldn't be worse. We'll be stuck here for hours trying to remove the lance from the thick ice it's been encased in." With Shining having contained the majority of the blast, the radiation levels in the frozen region had faded over time, to the point where it was moderately safe to roam the icy wastes again, provided you had the proper thermal gear. "Science can be both uplifting and destructive," Gendo noted to himself, "These expanses of nothing but ice and what few creatures adapted to live in this environment… It could easily happen to the rest of the world if humans are not careful."

He chuckled. "And I prefer the world to be as lively as it normally is." He took a look at the lance, as jackhammers carefully chipped away at the glacial wall it was caught in. "With the lance in our possession," Fuyutsuki noted, "We will have the perfect weapon to use against Lilith should she awaken." "Only Adam could ever properly use it," Gendo mused, "Hopefully he will be able to awaken and escape from SEELE's clutches before Lilith fully awakens. Of course, none of that will matter should Sahaquiel's planned attack succeed. The Dead Sea Scrolls were quite ominous concerning his abilities…"

Kaworu looked at the image on the monitors. "That's Sahaquiel all right. He's been in orbit around the planet for months now, studying the humans. Trying to find where Father is." "He must have been incredible lonely," Rei noted, "Perhaps once we retrieve his core he'll be able to reconnect with his other siblings." "I just got the data in from the satellites," Maya said, "The Angel's central body is at least eight-hundred meters. It's whole body is at least three-thousand meters wide!" "Zeruel always said he needed to go on a diet," Kaworu joked.

"All kidding aside," Aigis said, "If that is how long Sahaquiel is, then his mass must be enormous. But how will he attack?" "We know from the Dead Sea Scrolls that he can launch off parts of himself to bombard the ground below," Naoko noted, "Unit-01 does have space travel capability due to its flight, but one EVA alone wouldn't be able to handle an Angel this big." "How high can Jet Alone travel above sea level?," Shinji asked. "Not high enough," Cadence said, shaking her head, "It was never meant for interstellar combat."

"I can modify Mega World for space travel," Keebo noted, "But would two of us be enough to break through Sahaquiel's body to his core?" Just then, the image cut out. "Not good," Makoto said, "The satellite was just destroyed! Something impacted it!" "Looks like Sahaquiel wants some privacy," Kaworu noted, "I never knew he was so camera shy. He must have expanded his AT Field to use offensively." "With how big the Angel is," Maya noted, "His AT Field must be enormous." Kaworu looked at the ceiling in worry. 'You wouldn't really go through with it… Would you Brother?'

What Tabris was speaking of was Sahaquiel's biggest flaw. Normally a pleasant fellow to be around, this only lasted so long as things remained okay. But with Adam's loss, Sahaquiel was unable to recover, in spite of the kind words of his siblings. "I'm sorry Father… But I cannot continue to live a meaningless life… The least I can do is break open your prison, that another of my siblings can release you in my stead." He launched off a part of his body, which impacted in the waters just outside of Zero Point. "Missed. I should correct my orbit before I make my run."

Kaworu pounded the nearby table when the report came in. "Damn it, Sahaquiel! Did the words of your brothers and sisters mean nothing to you!?" "What's going on, Kaworu?," Rei asked. Kaworu looked like he had tears in his eyes. "Sahaquiel was the most devasted when we lost Father. He lost all meaning of joy, no matter what anyone would say to him. Now he's doing the only thing he thinks will have meaning… He's going to kamikaze the island, taking himself and us out all at once!" There was a general gasp. "Why would he do that!?," Ritsuko asked, "There's no way he'd free Adam if he's dead, even if Adam was here!"

"That won't matter to him," Kaworu clarified, "He'll just let the next sibling take over afterward. He could easily just bombard the island to crack it open, and we'd be near helpless. But maybe now we have a chance to save him. If he's planning to come within Earth's atmosphere…" "Then we could intercept him and retrieve his core!," Misato realized. "That's a risky venture," Shining noted, "If Sahaquiel manages to impact, it won't just destroy Zero Point. The resulting tsunami could wipe out thousands in Japan nearby."

Luckily, even with most of the island under SEELE's control, NERV still had enough clout to order an evacuation of both Zero Point and nearby Japan, just in case. However, the MAGI's plan for stopping the Angel was a crazy one. "So all six of us have to catch it with our hands?," Asuka asked, a little shocked. "Seven if you count Jet Alone," Shinji noted, "Although it will have the more important job. Once our AT Field's have canceled out the Angel's, Jet Alone is to go in and remove the core. That should stop the Angel's trajectory."

"This plan only has the smallest percentage of success," Keebo noted. "Story of our family's life," Shinji pointed out, speaking of the Joestar clan as a whole. It was pure luck that allowed Jonathan Joestar to defeat DIO Brando the first time, luck that gave Joseph Joestar the chance to defeat Kars, luck that gave Sadao Kujo the chance to overtake Mario DeBorne, luck that gave Jotaro Kujo the power to defeat DIO a second time, luck that allowed Josuke Higashikata the chance to find and defeat Yoshikage Kira, luck that gave Giorno Giovanna the tools to overcome Diavolo, luck that let Jolyne Kujo handle Enrico Pucci, luck that let George Joestar III rip apart Barbro Vaiself's plan, and luck that let Josefumi Kujo outsmart Honami Sato.

"At the end of the day," Shinji noted, "Luck is just something that comes to the Joestars naturally. Let's hope today isn't the day that luck finally runs out." The got in their respective mechs and launched out. Keebo tuned his platform's sensors. "I've calculated it as close as I can," he reported, "This should be right around the exact spot where the Angel should land. Margin for error is only five percent." 'Good enough,' Misato said, 'Now we just need to hope you guys can catch it.' "Like Rei said when this all got started," Shinji said, "In a few minutes, you'll either know or won't care."

Soon enough, they spotted Sahaquiel overhead. "Jeez, the computer monitor didn't do him justice!," Asuka said in shock. His eye alone seemed to be equal in size to any of the EVAS. "Get ready to make the catch!," Aigis called out. Once he was down to twenty-thousand feet, Sahaquiel felt sure of victory. "This is for great honor! Father, I know you will be proud of my memory!" Suddenly, he felt himself get stopped by something pushing against his momentum. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw what it was. "The machines from before! Along with a new one! No! I cannot let my sacrifice be in vain!"

He tried to increase his momentum, but it only resulted in his AT Field starting to crack as the six pilots pushed their powers to their limit trying to hold him back. It felt like trying to control a tsunami or earthquake. Finally, the AT Field shattered, and Jet Alone quickly swooped in, firing off several high-frequency laser to cut through Sahaquiel's body. "Wait… What are you doing!?" Sahaquiel suddenly felt himself leave his body, cutting off enough of its momentum that it harmlessly fell to the ground, albeit temporarily covering the EVAs and Mega World before ballooning up and popping.

'Is everyone alright?,' Cadence asked. "My soul feels like it needs a rest…," Shinji noted, "Cruel Angel's Thesis needs time to heal…" "I feel like a used doormat," Asuka muttered. "I could sleep for centuries at this rate," Rei agreed. "I'm currently in cooldown mode," Aigis replied, "I believe I won't be able to function for a while." "What she said," Keebo agreed. "So this is what happens to humans when they get exhausted," Kaworu noted. Misato chuckled. 'Looks like they just need a bit of rest. We can hold off the next assault for a few hours.'

Watching the entire event was a young woman right around Yui's age. In fact the two had been good friends for many years. Her name was Mari Illustrious Makinami, a half-British woman who had worked with Yui before her disappearance, and was grateful to hear of her return. From behind her appeared a humanoid figure similar in appearance to the EVAs, only with brilliant Angel wings. "So they're in the home stretch now," she said to herself, "But they'll need more help. Let's go… Beautiful World." She had earlier joined several other Stand users in storming the metropolis, her Stand's electrical field resulting in the destruction of several dozen Killseekers.

But SEELE wasn't yet done. And they likely wouldn't be until they either succeeded, which no one would let happen if they had any say in it, or they were wiped out. Mari had spent years training in Speedwagon, seeking therapy to deal with her mental issues and mastering her Stand so that she could maintain her reason even while in her feral "beast mode". She was a Stand user, and she refused to wind up one that would hurt innocent people. That would make her no different than her Uncle Gray Fly. He had ultimately paid the price for his evil, a lesson to Stand users everywhere. And one she intended to pay heed to.

Yep, I'm having Mari enter the picture. We'll see her EVA soon enough. In many ways, Mari is designed to have a Stand similar to Shinji, an analogy to Zyuoh Bird. Speaking of which, it's been a while since I've featured some Stand stats.

Beautiful World (Opening of Rebuild of Evangelion)
User: Mari Illustrious Makinami
Ability: Beautiful World generates a powerful electrical field that can disrupt certain other non-physical barriers, especially AT Fields if they are strong enough. This field can act as both offense and defense, charging Mari's body into a feral rage or protecting her from outside forces. The Stand itself is very capable in a fight if necessary.
Power: B
Speed: A
Range: B
Durability: C
Precision: D
Potential: B

This'll be the last Stand until the next part, when we double-down on the villain Stands. Read and review.