+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

Ireul stood inside Shinji's soul, facing the first and only of her siblings she'd ever honestly considered simply murdering. With her single eye glowing with her desire to engage in a violent resolution, she uttered the only advice she could muster, "Run. Do not look back. Do not make yourself known. Do not let him find you. When he summons you, bend every last ounce of your willpower to denying the call. Unless, or until, either I, or Arael, come to find you…and we will find you…run."

Armisael, a being now gifted with perfect knowledge of what she'd been tricked into doing, stammered out pleas for mercy, "I…I c-can give him more! I can…I can give him thousands of children! All he-" Her frantic speech was cut off by a vicious backhand from her sister, a pained whimper creeping between her lips.

She ached to tear the Aspect's head from her shoulders, "You are not running…why?" When the entity fled, disappearing with a wail of torment, Ireul turned back to the others, "We will do what we can to slow him down. This is the discord that Tabris desired. Every instant he spends chasing Armisael, is one less instant he is preparing to fight for his life. There is nothing we can do for the past, and I do share your contempt for the situation Leliel," she speared her sister with a glance, the quivering Aspect of Night wishing to give chase to administer her own punishments, "so we now must do what we can to save the future. He loves us. We know he loves us. Let us save him, with that love."

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

Suzuka, lying asleep after a pharmaceutical miracle was found, was unaware of the tears pouring from Kyoko's eyes. She was unaware of Rina and Hina doing what they needed to clean what was a crime against all Creation in their mind. She was unaware that even Ritsuko Akagi, distant and aloof, was stoically weeping as she reported the news to those family members she could reach. Her husband lay similarly unconscious kilometers away. The eternal swordswoman's family grieved as one. It was the last gift anyone could hope to offer her, before she awoke. Before she knew, for certain, what she could never unknow.

Before she would become His deadliest Weapon.

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

Misato directed recovery operations, driving everyone harder and faster than they'd ever moved, "We are going to be anticipating an assault force at any moment, Shigeru-kun. Nobody is on leave right now. I want all hands on deck, all shifts. I don't care if we don't have enough chairs for them right now, I want every single fucking soul in this organization in this base, at this moment. If they have to break out of the shelters to do so it is not their decision. I want them here, and I want them here now."

"Yes ma'am," the lanky haired guitarist had his phone out already and was engaging the recall tree.

Turning to face several military commanders that had responded to her request for their presence, she made the situation plain, "Paladin is down, we have SAR teams en route to the likely landing areas following that blast, but our cameras are all knocked out for several kilometers and they'll be searching blind. We are expecting the final Angel any moment, and have sweet fuck all to throw at him. He's a humanoid, a little smaller than you," she pointed at one colonel. "He will be either nearly or completely impervious to gunfire, explosives, anything we think to throw at him. Our one hope is that we get Paladin back in the fight rapidly. What I need from all of you is air cover. Unless I miss my guess, Tabris is not arriving alone. He can't have planned all of this out and thought his best chance at victory was him alone against my pissed off husband after murdering my nieces."

Admiral Lazarev gestured to the radar, leaving the grieving for his good ally's loss for later after the war was finished, "I can have Strzyga Squadron here in ten minutes. Is your ADS reliable this week?"

"Yes, I've had them run regular and asynchronous testing of the system to avoid the same mistake." She urged him over to begin the process of setting up the no fly zone, then spoke to Kiyomi, "I want all three Companies here. We're camping them at strategic points, we'll resupply from our own stocks. We have limited amounts of weapons that I think we're going to need to use, against you know who. I want Bravo guarding the diplomats, nobody in or out. Go." She was pleased that the woman didn't argue, and didn't ask stupid questions she knew she wouldn't get answers to. "Admiral," she looked to Samuel Drake with an unamused frown, "I really hope you didn't lose the Americans' phone number during your recent disagreements. I have intel that there are naval forces steaming west from the near-Pacific, and now would be a very bad time for round two."

The man smiled ruefully, "I'll find what I can, Colonel. No guarantees."

"When do we ever get those around here?" She barked out a laugh before facing the Marine General that had been seated directly by the unfortunate pregnant woman to be chosen by an Angel, "Sir, you should know that I'm former Armor. Infantry and I have a well worn understanding with one another, squishies stay out of the way of the tanks, tanks make sure the other tanks don't hurt our squishies. The tanks that are coming, are probably around as tall as I am, on average. One, and I pray that she's just really, really good, took out around eight armed, deadly, men barehanded while supporting Paladin in saving someone he loved. I can only assume we'll be seeing more than one coming our way. I need some help, because I don't have that many tanks of my own."

The old Marine, a veteran of far too many wars, simply nodded while thinking through what was necessary, "I need a secure line to Tokyo-2, and a promise that the Paladin will consider meeting my granddaughter. She has a photo of him in her room signed by his own hand, and has bugged me every week to ask him for another. She's eight, you see, and idolizes the 'real life hero'."

"I'll drive him there myself, sir, if you just help me keep him alive long enough to do so." An easier promise to make, since the woman in question was the age of Team Rainbow, and not another potential anchor to hang around his neck. So long as he doesn't blow his brains out because- Strangling the thought, she gestured to her own station, "Press six one, and then dial whatever you want. If someone manages to break that encryption protocol, we're all dead anyway."

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

"I'm surprised you're not leaving to go stand at Shinji's side, like my mother did," Tabris, now fully powered, stood calmly in a mockery of Shinji's preferred stance, remaining in the caverns he'd been within for weeks now. "You have to know that I don't fear you, at all."

Lilith knew, through Rei, what had happened. She knew that there were frantic motions to shore up defenses, that plans had been laid for some time to give them a fighting chance. That Misato Katsuragi was not now, nor had she ever been, one to sit around eating candies and hoping for a prince to save her. "I don't fear you either. I don't know why you're doing what you are doing, and I don't know why you felt it necessary to do what you have done…but when Shinji tears your head apart you must know that no one is going to mourn your passing. There will be no love waiting for you, in the end. There will be no joyful reunion. Armisael did not know what she was doing, because she lacked what you have. Even she, with time, can be forgiven. You, of any of them, cannot hide behind ignorance."

"And so, you want to understand the 'why'," he inclined his shoulders in respect. "A noble goal. One must, after all, learn from history to avoid remaining an infant forever. So, allow me to teach by asking you a question…what of your history prior to the Garden do you remember?"

Each moment she kept him talking was more time for Shinji to recover, "None of it. I wasn't made to know the events leading up to my creation. He denied me, I denied him, I left the Garden, and ever since have been hounded by you miserable little shits."

"Hmm," he grunted. "And, those that came before?"

Her hand rolled, "Same as the other answer. Those that I was made aware of, were those that hunted me down for fleeing from Adam. They demanded I return. They proclaimed that I was 'abandoning my fate', I proclaimed they could kiss my ass, and so they began to burn the worlds I had seeded. For every day I remained away from the Garden, ten thousand of my children would be reduced to ash."

"And who would be so cruel as to do that, hmm? What…malevolent evil would seek out retribution on someone who had nothing to do with the crime that enraged them so?" Tabris gestured up towards the sky neither could see, "Who, out there, is possibly responsible for setting out your fate?"

"Creation," Lilith shrugged. "You are not doing this simply to spite Determinism. You're not that stupid, and this is not that clever. You've helped Shinji, even when you've tried to kill him. If your plan is just random chaos, then that's not a plan, and it's not going to work. Creation would just force your chaos into the paths it desired, and away we go. Same result, with just a bit more sprinkles on top."

"Says the being who murdered the entirety of the multiverse." Pulling one hand free of his pocket and wagging his finger as if scolding a naughty child, he smirked, "If Creation were so unstoppable, why would you have succeeded? Unless, of course, it wanted you to succeed. It wanted you to eliminate the competition. It wanted you to clean up its mess. It wanted a clean start for…a Shinji."

Her lips drew down into a frown, "You're telling me that Creation used my ambition to see beyond the Borders, prompting me to erase everything it had made, leaving one Shinji Ikari around to…what, suffer? Yes, Creation can be cruel, but I do not see cruelty in everything it does. If you had just gone along with the plan from the beginning, accepted your part in Adam's misguided attempts at usurping reality, you'd be with your siblings living a wonderful life. You are injecting cruelty into what we're doing. So how does your nonsense follow from this?"

"Does it really shock you that I might actually want the same thing as Shinji does?" Tabris' face suddenly became serious, "That balance, as an integral part of the universe itself, would seem appealing to a being of free will when all around us is decided before we are even born? What kind of life would he have, if no one had set a virus in place to limit the available number of breeding males on this planet? If the intelligent, driven, powerful women who have accepted a piece of something greater, instead demanded the whole? We don't need to ask, because we have countless lives where he was with one, or another, of any of these women. Story after story where he lived, he loved, and he died meaningless deaths. Nothing great accomplished, nothing great changed. Creation has been crafting this universe for him, and all I'm trying to do is balance the scales. Endless sunshine and smiles eventually dull and dim, because for all the good you experience…you never experience the sting of regret to compare it to. So why, and honestly think here, is Creation allowing me to do this? Who is Creation?"

Every time she attempted to answer the question, the information seemed to fade from her mind. The answer was obvious, she knew it was. But like a name that just won't leave the back of your throat, the answer remained unspoken. She was bound. Determinism, Creation's web, had her tight. Tabris, as powerful as he was, couldn't free her to answer the one most important question to ever be asked of her, "He's going to kill you."

"And it will be glorious," the Angel of Free Will laughed sadly. "Because if I am the only being capable of writing my own story, I will write it in blood so bitter that none will ever forget my memory. And if I can only ever give a great man one gift…it will be the drive to do more than just trot around the universe pretending that he's accomplishing anything but avoiding the inevitable. I will instill in him the strength to defy everyone." Drawing in a deep breath, he looked past her towards the entrance, "I've said Creation's name several times now, in just this conversation, by the way. It's not a coincidence that everyone believes me the enemy in this story. History doesn't remember the unwritten, after all."

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

Shinji's soul came into sharp contrast as he awoke within it. He knew he'd lost time, the livid bruising and burns that had become part of his cognition of his own existence were proof that he'd needed a few moments of true unconsciousness to heal himself from near-death. Sitting upright, in an effort to stand, was not accomplished without compounding that pain and inducing nausea to accompany it. As he pushed himself to his feet, he heard the approach of a pair of steps and sought to pre-empt their statement, "I'm going to kill her."

"You already did," Ireul replied calmly, worry and pain covering her expression. "My love-"

There was no explosion, no flame and fury, in his voice. His response was, at worst, politely conversational, "She murdered my children. Even here, between the tick and the tock, I can feel the absence of their presence. Even here, I can feel the sorrow of my wives. She murdered my children, and so I am going to kill her." Ignoring the agony that moving caused, he went around the one-eyed Aspect of Terror to be about finding his prey.

Not wishing to jump straight to physical confrontations, she tried emotional as she kept pace with him, "And like I myself, she did not know what she was doing. You were her enemy, you were our captor, her father's murderer! From her perspective, she was engaged in a war against a being that was preparing to destroy everything she held dear. You were going to kill her too! Not every being on the face of creation has the capacity for moral fortitude you do."

"When a human soldier murders a baby as a means to reduce the fighting capacity of their enemy, we consider it a war crime," he countered, his voice remaining unperturbed. "I accept that your morality is on a much different axis than my own. I love you, regardless. You killed clones that, while precious, held no souls. They were empty vessels. Your crime, and hers, are not comparable. I have fought only when not given a choice against fighting with you. This war has been fought between soldiers."

"You're a conscript," she challenged, "just like her."

"So were millions of men during World War Two," he responded simply. "They were still held responsible for answering to their military commanders. There were penalties for misbehavior. Sometimes, those penalties were extreme. The more extreme the crime, the more extreme the punishment." His movement remained stiff, his body not eager to respond to his demands, "Name a more extreme crime than killing the defenseless without provocation?"

She knew that she wasn't winning this fight with the tactics she'd tried, "The answer to that can't be more death. She is incapable of doing further harm. She's a part of you now, penitent and seeking nothing but a chance to make amends."

He paused, looking at her, "Can she restore them to life?"

"…No."

"Then I would recommend you go and help the others prepare themselves for losing a sibling." He started off again, listening to the auras around him for any trace of the songs he could pull on, "Because I am going to kill her."

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

"We've found him, Baseplate." Feelgood brought his VTOL around to hover near the oddly shaped crater his favorite Eva pilot had created on impact, "This is gonna take some doing, though. No solid place to put down around here. He scattered these trees like your kid throws toys, and any place I try to set down is risking tipping this bird over. Recommend…." Frowning, he scanned the distance, "Baseplate, I have visual on a bogey bearing two niner zero, looks to be about Angels ten and closing fast on my position. I expecting a playmate in my airspace?"

The AWACS responded with a hint of concern, "Negative tracking on radar, Hammer Zero-One, confirm-"

A ball of flame appeared where he knew the overwatch plane to be, prompting a simple yet heartfelt, "Fuck." A vast array of options ran through his head. Too many of which ended up with him marking the exact location of the very most importantest person on the planet by standing still, and thereby exposing him to enemy fire. Banking off after memorizing his position, he switched his radio to the reserved line, "Mother, your boy is at grid three niner four two eight eight three niner, I repeat, three niner four two eight eight three niner. I am bugging out to avoid giving away his position. There are no parking spots in his immediate area for my craft, over."

Misato's response was firm and unforgiving, "Negative, Zero-One, you get back there and do whatever is necessary to maintain eyes on his position. If they nab him while nobody's looking, we may not find him again. Platform is expendable, how copy?"

The decision had been made, and it didn't matter whether he liked it or not, he'd been ordered to do what he could. "Solid copy, Mother. Some backup would be lovely, if at all possible. I'm not equipped for interdiction, over."

Her tone remained ice, "Just do what you can, Feelgood. Out."

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

"JAXA Eight Heavy is coming about…now," Shigeru showed the bridge exactly what Misato had been terrified of, projecting it on the main viewscreen for all to marvel at. Parked in low earth orbit was a spaceship that was clearly not from the local area, and it was disgorging smaller vessels at an alarming rate. "Oh…dear."

The lavender-haired warrior nodded slowly, agreeing with the general principle of his statement even if she disagreed with the specific phrasing of it, "We need our big gun back on the board. I need imagery of that grid Feelgood gave us, do we have anything that can magnify that patch of dirt real time?"

Misato's earpiece drew another fragment of her attention, the voice of Sachiko Ozaki mingled with heavy weapons fire, "Colonel, Topaz Actual, we are seeing landing craft inbound on our location. Have made contact with an expedition unit in our sector…anticipating a negative outcome. I can buy you maybe five minutes at this location, over."

She hoped Shinji would understand, "Understood, Topaz. Fight a delaying action into the main corridor, let them box themselves in trying to break through the exterior walls if they want to. Fall back as far as phase line Delta if you have to, but hold that position. Rainbow and the dignitaries are just beyond there with the wounded, over."

Sachiko, by her tone, did understand, "Topaz copies all, out."

When a small section of the screen expanded, Shigeru working his skills to their limits in finding actionable intelligence, Misato saw the man she loved burning with flames darker than the deepest reaches of space…impaled on a tree branch that was jutting through his chest. His feet dangled, his arms splayed, his blood flowing. He needed help…they all needed help.

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

"Great One," Israfel, both Alpha and Beta, walked backwards before him, pleading with him, "your family is under attack! You must give up this chase, you must go save them!"

He slowed his pace, looking between them, "By who?"

It appears to be what you know as Scions, Arael responded, landing on Israfel Beta's shoulder. An entire World Ship.

Shinji had enough familiarity with the vessel to come to a halt. He knew they weren't lying, it was impossible in his soul. "I…I can't forgive her." Rage, frozen and sterile, caused indecision and stasis to dig in, "She has to die."

"Does she have to die right now?" Israfel Alpha spread her hands in supplication, "She cannot flee. She is a part of you."

Israfel Beta nodded eagerly, "Deal with the threat to the living, avenge the dead when the time is correct."

Rationality, somehow, remained despite him achieving a state of anger that could only be described as transcending the concept. They were not wrong. The living needed him; the dead could wait. He would enter the field, obliterate the opposition, return, and continue his hunt. Relaxing his will, the first step to removing himself from his own soul…he ran into the first obstacle to his new plan, "I'm…stuck."

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

"I'm sorry, Admiral, but the Secretary is rather busy at the moment," the polite, if ever so slightly condescending, executive assistant smiled insincerely as he deflected questions. "I have been instructed to direct any inquiries from your forces to the-"

Admiral Drake, an American by birth and belief, recognized the thinly veiled social niceties that were being observed for what they were. "Son, you pass this on to the Secretary: if these forces are hostile, there will be a counterstrike. The United States will be facing not only the combined military might of the First Fleet, but most of the East Asian sphere. Including, and this is where she really needs to consider what she's allowing to happen, the Empire of Ikari. If he hits the board, he'll make what Second Impact did to the eastern seaboard look charming by comparison. You have no weapons that can stop him, and he will prosecute his campaign with ruthless efficiency."

In his middle years, the arrogant man sneered, "Then why is he so afraid of a visit by the Ninth Fleet?"

"Because he doesn't like killing people who don't deserve it. I am trying to prevent a war. If you have any humanity, you should be doing the exact same thing. Now run along and tell Betty that she and I will be speaking face to face very soon. Drake out." Punching the button to terminate the call, he swore silently and looked over to Misato. He was impressed, beyond impressed actually, at how calmly she was organizing the limited forces she had. She was standing in the largest shitstorm he'd ever seen, with thousands of enemy troops hitting the battlefield a second and the skies now swarming with hostile craft, and her uniform looked as if it were fresh from the cleaners. He'd fought for worse causes, and with worse battlefield commanders. Turning to Admiral Lazarev, he asked gamely, "Any luck on your end, old friend?" He hoped that his Russian colleague had something better than he himself could produce at the moment.

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

Kiyomi was not having the best day. There was little, in her opinion, that might have made it worse…and she really didn't want to see those things happen either. Pressed into defending herself as her Company fought valiantly against enemies they had little hope of defeating in a direct firefight, she directed her troops in a constant fighting withdrawal. Her teams acquitted themselves well, moving efficiently from low wall to low wall as they kept an unpredictable field of fire downrange to slow the advance of the humanoid aliens that had landed. Casualty rates were high, and climbing, and no prisoners were being taken. The only high point, she found, was that her opponents were not invulnerable. Difficult to hit, but with the amount of ammunition being expended, she would have been able to succeed…if she had support.

"Excuse me," a youthful voice sounded to her side.

Ducking down to determine who was stupid enough to approach her during a shooting match, she recognized a gorgeous blonde in a stylized school uniform smiling with a great deal of swagger. "You're…Minako-chan, right?"

"That would be me," the Sailor of Venus nodded. "I need your people to retreat back to the far wall. I'm going to ask these folks to stay out, and don't want to risk hitting your people with the delivery of my request."

Kiyomi's first reaction was to question the sanity of the woman, her second thought however was that she was getting torn apart and could use a break. As one of the few American movies she enjoyed had put it, she'd piss on a spark plug if she thought it'd do any good. "Jade, fall back to phase line Bravo! Fall back!"

"Mwah," blowing a kiss, Venus winked before standing up. As her body straightened, and the JSSDF troops followed orders, a chain of hundreds of golden stylized hearts appeared around her in a series of undulating rings, with her face transitioning from smiles to boundless confidence she cried out, "Venus Love and Beauty Shock!"

Hopping back up herself to provide covering fire for the raging idiot that just exposed herself to enemy guns without any, Kiyomi's rifle dispensed only half a dozen rounds before she noticed that the strange Sailor's attack had sent thousands of the same golden hearts out in a wave of unrelenting death. Each of the alien women that had forced their way through the doors of the facility were hunted down by those otherworldly lights, and on contact were blown apart as if struck by grenades. The cheers of her team, a reprieve granted by a vision of splendor, existed as a dull noise in her ears. She'd lost two platoons trying to hold this line, and one pretty girl in a sailor fuku…. "Where were you?"

"Shutting off the enemy advance in four other sectors that your forces were not available to contain," a new voice called from her side. Rei Hino had replaced Minako, who was dispatched to another front to do what she could, "There are only five of us, Major. We are powerful but our numbers are limited, and we need recovery time before we can go very hard again. Recover the enemy's weapons, they should operate easily enough that you can figure them out. Defend this point, we'll do what we can to support." The Major saw the beautiful priestess look inwards, then sigh. "I must go. We have casualties mounting from the Section Two personnel. Misato is sending us to where we are best suited, I only came here because I know the burdens of command. Warrior to warrior…honor your dead, keep the rest alive."

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

The news continued to pile over him, "We're all stuck in here." He now had each direct child of Adam before him, minus Armisael, and every one of them nodded grimly. To an Aspect, they were all unable to leave the soulspace. It was odd, when he thought on it, how he was neither panicking nor becoming angrier. How the Sailors weren't present, nor was Kyoko. Looking at the area around them, he chewed on his tongue, "Ok."

Ireul, heedless of the potential consequences of setting her beloved's temper off, stepped up to smooth her hands over his chest again, "My love? I can't hear your thoughts anymore. What are you thinking?"

"I'm listing possible causes," he replied, turning his emotionless gaze on her. "It's not a shard of the Spear, I was conscious when that paralyzed me. It can't be Tabris, he'd just kill me. Neither Lilith nor Eve have the power to seal me in here. Does anyone have any other ideas?"

Sahaquiel raised her hand timidly, "Do…uhm…."

Crouching down, and urging her over, he demonstrated that despite his rage he was no longer content to be a mindless animal, "Come here." Taking her hands in his after she timidly approached, though lacking the smile that might have helped put her at ease, he stated solemnly, "I still love you, Saha-chan. I always will. If you think you have an idea, please, let us hear it. No one will make fun of you."

Ireul joined him, though without crouching as she stood just as tall now as he did squatting, "He's right, dear sister. None here will tease, not right now. We need ideas, no matter where they come from."

Her one great eye blinked a few times as she considered the pair, her childish demeanor only aided by her viewing them as her true mother and father instead of those that had given rise to her. Shifting her shoulders uncomfortably, she whispered, "Do I have to keep protecting them from you, Daddy?"

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

"Ok, ok, ok," Feelgood was forcing his bird to dance in a way that he knew wouldn't last long. His engines were fighting him now, and his starboard flaps were periodically locking in place. He was in a dogfight against superior platforms while flying the equivalent of a school bus, and as good as his crew was, there was one plane against dozens. The only reason he hadn't been shot down, in his opinion, was that they seemed to avoid firing directly on where Shinji was impaled to a tree. Spying another craft on an approach vector that the side-mounted heavy machine gun could hit, he called out, "Chief, port side, two o'clock high!" They'd been chasing off and harassing what he assumed were landing craft of some sort. Another mark in his favor was that they were having the same problems he was in landing nearby. One more heavy impact to his tail brought clenched teeth, and a desperate call of, "All points, all points, Hammer Zero-One can't take much more damage. We are at serious risk of losing this airspace, I repeat, serious risk of losing this airspace, over."

A strange voice sounded through the radio in response, "Does this work? Hello?"

Banking hard to avoid a stream of gunfire, he barked out a reflexive, "Identify yourself, over."

"Oh, hello. This is [Song], of the [Song]. If you would kindly not crash for a few more minutes, we'll clear you a landing pad." Her voice shifted pitch, presumably to talk to someone nearby, "[Song], not there! We…yeah, there. There's good." Her voice returned to his direction, "Oh, also, if you could not fire on us? We're about to start clearing the Scion craft from this area. It will be a little loud, and probably very startling. But we won't shoot you, so please don't shoot us? Oh, right…uhm, over?"

"Uh…roger." Praying that he wasn't hallucinating, Feelgood risked a tight loop to get another good look at the area around Shinji. A trio of pink-skinned women were nearly done piecing together what he could believe to be some sort of crew-served flak cannon, based on what he'd just been told. Another two were attempting to approach Shinji, but some sort of barrier seemed to be preventing it. He nearly, for the first time in more than a decade, lost control of his plane as the first blast exited the cannon. The sound was immense, a hollow thump that seemed backwards in his head, and an enormous flare of what any sane mind in his profession would call 'FM' was dispensed at a nearby enemy bird, downing it in an explosion of screaming metal.

"There we are," the voice spoke again, pleased with what was happening. "We have your vessel's signature programmed in now, so you definitely won't be hit on purpose. Do try not to stray into the field of fire, though. Once it ignites…well, physics are more or less immutable at this distance." Her statement was intercut with several more blasts from the cannon, now rotating on its own and dispensing death to the closest targets to their area. "We will need you to help us evacuate once we secure our Captain's [Song], I do hope you have enough room."

Yet another surprise made him continue to question his own sanity, as one of the enormous fallen logs that was cluttering the area around Shinji's comatose form streaked through the sky to impact one of the enemy crafts he'd been harassing. Significantly damaging one of the wings, and tearing off the engine, the attack forced the craft to land hard, well away from the area. That, had it been done with a ballista, would have been an impressive shot. That it had been done by one of the dainty-seeming women picking it up and throwing it like a javelin was impressively terrifying. Recalling himself, he refocused his team on the mission, "Ok, folks. We've got a small reprieve! Equipment check and make sure everything's working. If I have to belly down this bitch, we're hitting the deck as soon as she's done spearing birds with trees and we are strong-pointing this position until overwhelmed or relieved."

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

My apologies, Misato, but hindering their teleporters is the best I can manage right now, Rose's voice came through, heavy with fatigue and bleak determination. My [Song] is not nearly a match for this monster. I am doing what I can with their landing craft, but those little [Song] are aggressively fast and I have few weapons that wouldn't end with me causing just as much damage. I've got the advantage in speed and maneuverability on the World Ship, but this thing has shielding that I can't punch through. My combat engineers should be on the surface now, but that's a delaying tactic at best, because nobody's able to breach Shinji's shield.

Understood. She hadn't expected a miracle, they simply didn't exist. Do what you can to sweep the edges. Don't worry about the main assault force on us at the expense of them. I don't want this spilling out into what's left of the civilian sectors.

Copy, out.

With the warplanes from the First Fleet outmatched but undaunted, she made the tactical decision that was strategically questionable, "Admiral, pull most of your forces back. We need to be ready to deal with whatever the Americans are sending our way. Refit and refuel, defend the Fleet. This is a ground war now."

The Russian officer nodded grimly, "Understood, sub-commander."

"I have all nearby garrisons emptying and rallying on our position," the Marine General uttered quietly. "They will assault in waves, attempting to break through their lines to reach us. The Air Forces have their hands full with these alien craft, any bombing missions would be unsupported and risk crashing over the nearby civilian populace. The Defense Minister and Prime Minister are arguing over acceptable losses, my apologies for their short-sightedness."

"Not your fault," Misato waved off the concern. "I want any ground forces to focus on supporting Topaz and Jade. Spearhead through and reinforce those points. What about your own birds? Attack helicopters and the like?"

"Mongoose units are already engaged along the flanks, trying to clear a path for the Marines and the Army. They are taking significant losses, but they'll get the ground troops here." He frowned, "The rotor wings are still grounded. The base commander was ordered to stand down by the Defense Minister. Fortunately, we only lost about a quarter of our personnel to that foolishness, but the entirety of that wing is off the board."

"Ever our own worst enemies," she murmured.

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

"Ok." Shinji nodded slowly, trying to will understanding into place, "I'm…afraid I don't remember saying that." Looking at the gathered Aspects, who knew the statement was true based on where it was he uttered it, he continued, "I can't remember what I did and did not say during the time I became…more him than me. How many of you did I give secret orders to, and are they in any way prohibiting me from leaving here?"

Matarael raised one of its forelimbs, "You asked that I ensure the skies become pure, to remove the impurities that the Lilin introduced through centuries of warfare and industry. I doubt that my task would prevent you from leaving, unless you were introducing dangerous impurities to the skies by doing so."

Sachiel indicated that it had been asked to purify the seas in the same manner. Doubting sincerely that his waking would do damage to his work.

Sandalphon, sorrow hanging from his reply, could only answer with a simple whispered, "Nor mine."

Leliel, tugging on her hair, shrugged grumpily, "You just told me to make the night skies clear enough from time to time that the Lilin could pierce them with their telescopes. You wanted me to help them see the universe."

Gaghiel, dancing where he was with nervous energy, wiggled in the negative.

"Ok…." The orders made sense, cleaning up the environmental damage made by both humanity's ascent through scientific destruction and Adam's environmental damage made by attempting to alter the biosphere to suit Adamite life would be something he would inherently desire. Even Leliel's orders followed naturally from his desire for humanity to be inspired by the stars beyond the cradle they inhabited. His eyes drifted to where Ireul was slowly working her sister through the problems they faced, "Why would I ask Sahaquiel to protect them from me?"

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

Snapping their neck like a dry twig, Eve carefully hid the body of yet another assassin that had snuck through the lines to attempt to murder Shinji's family. Having turned most of the furniture into a barrier so that Nozomi and Sakura were not forced to see the dead bodies, she did what she could within the rules at play. Scanning the room, she smiled with a cheer she didn't feel, "Well. Ultimately we're just fortunate that Kelly and the Imperial Princess there are able to keep those dear children distracted." Looking to Hikari, she gestured to the young woman's knuckles, "Might want to wash those."

"Hmm?" Looking down, she saw the blood from her own efforts at keeping everyone safe, "Oh. Drat." Accepting a wet cloth from Yang, she smiled wanly and whispered, "Thanks." It was a vain effort to keep a polite fiction up for the little ones, but polite fictions were sometimes all that could be offered.

"No problem." Yang was, herself, freshly washed after Tsuru had made a similar comment about her own clothing.

The first two teenagers that had accepted their Roles in Shinji's life had experienced their first true taste of life or death, hand to hand, combat. Before Eve arrived, a single Scion, which as most of the other enemy forces was a member of Rose's species, had broken the door down. To their credit, several of the male diplomats had attempted to defend what they felt were defenseless young women. It was not a choice made from machismo, but simply a recognition that if any would be capable of fighting to defend Shinji's family, it was them.

The disparity of physical prowess between the two antagonistic parties had become quickly apparent. The Imperial Princess ordered her retainers to bring 'Team Rainbow' to her, and had sought to reassure them with a motherly aura. Pen-Pen followed along, his claws extended and his eyes focused on the woman he knew didn't have good designs on the fledglings. Kelly made the choice to stay with them, instead of add another tangle to the fight. Should they face death, they would do so while embraced by love. All four diplomats, now broken and bleeding, had been dispatched as nuisances. Cardinal Brahe then moved between the Scion and the children, his own retinue forming ranks behind him and praying that their God would forgive them their sins in the hour of their death. That He might accept their sacrifice as proof of their faith in His judgement. Most of the rest of the diplomatic staff had done the same, minus the praying, accepting that there was little to be done against a force that had already attacked without warning and showed no interest in speaking to anyone. Leaving Tsuru and Minami to help Rei comfort a quietly weeping Fuuka, Hikari and Yang moved as one. Some inner signal telling them that where others had failed, the Chosen of Ikari might have succeeded.

And succeed they had. Yang who was trained and skilled, though not practiced, in the art of dealing death, had moved to force the Scion to deal with people on both flanks. The pink-skinned woman innately understood that there was actual danger in the pair she'd then faced, and had stepped back away from the mass of humanity protecting the children in an effort to gauge her foe's cooperation. Hikari, skilled, and familiar with actual physical combat, lunged first to force the encounter on favorable terms.

A right hook preceded a knee to the hip, pushing the Scion into facing her and exposing her back to Yang's shuffled sidekick. Hikari kept the focus on her by slapping away the counterblow, retreating one step before springing back in with a jab and elbow combination. Back and forth the two women worked in tandem, neither as strong as the Scion, but both strong enough to kill her together.

The alien being hadn't anticipated this, and despite being a trained killer, had proven unable to concentrate on what she was doing. Her movements had become sluggish, her responses inelegant. The one thing that every soldier needed to overcome in their lives before they were truly successful, had lingered in her mind like a sickly malaise…she had been terrified, and also blinded by an odd light that haunted the edges of her vision like the ghosts of all of her sins. She had been afraid, and so, she had fallen.

Three others fell, facing increasingly stiff opposition as Hikari and Yang developed a rapport, before Eve appeared with apologies for her delay. A brief explanation of what had transpired led to the Mother of Angels smiling calmly and asking them to back her up, but to let her handle any of the rabble that came through the door. It had proven effective, as one on one, Eve was as far beyond the Scions as the Scions were beyond the Lilin behind them. When more than one showed up, the wolves attacked as a pack. They might not survive against a concentrated assault, but scouts stood no chance.

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

Mikoto smiled with giddy abandon, freed of the silly constraints imposed on her as a supposed officer of the law. With her knives in her hands, the wind playing across her body, she was death. There were no arrests. No warnings. No paperwork. There were those stupid enough to threaten Shinji's loves, and a violent demise. She knew what Akane and Nicolette attempted before they attempted it, their field of fire shifting in one direction or another to support the whirlwind she had become. For far longer than anyone would rationally believe possible she held the line against superior numbers. Despite Section Two agents dying in droves, too slow or focused on other threats to avoid the blasts that killed them, she held a quarter of the enemy in the entryway of the western sector.

With an entire cavernous hallway filled with the dead and dying corpses of Scions, her ballet of destruction seemed to have no end. Blood pooled and voided waste stank. New, zealous, foes pushed in after their fallen comrades, heedless of the fate of those before them, uncaring for the fate of those afterwards. The Scions would not be denied forever.

In the end, as many battles tended to, luck played the deciding factor. A particularly tenacious member of the assaulting force jumped at her legs, causing Mikoto to correct backwards in her motions naturally. This placed her heel on the wrist of a dead Scion, causing her to stumble slightly. The delay in her motion gave a waiting enemy sniper a clean shot.

The sniper gave Mikoto a new energy beam chest piercing, and the defensive line began to fold on itself catastrophically.

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

"The easiest way to explain it, is that you're radioactive." Ireul motioned for patience, "Not in the way you are likely thinking of. Your hatred has overbalanced your love, and nearly any living thing you come into contact with in this state is likely to suffer very negative effects. Such as spontaneously ceasing to exist as a physical entity."

Shinji nodded slowly, easily accepting the explanation as accurate. "I…want to rip her mind apart." His hands were steady as he showed them to the Aspect he loved the most, making a calm, orderly, tearing motion, "I want to flay it, deliberately. Lingeringly. I want to hear her screams echo throughout the cosmos as a warning to all who might come after her of the inexorable misery I will inflict on the entirety of their very essence should they so much as contemplate the concept of harming one I love. I want to breathe exquisite agony into her soul, until her name becomes synonymous with the unthinkable abyss. I want to gift her a form of death that forces time itself to bend its orderly progression around the event in an effort to avoid association with the act."

Taking a deep breath, trying deliberately to not worsen the situation by overreacting, the one-eyed Aspect of Terror announced, "Yes, more or less that. We need you to turn that down a notch, so that Sahaquiel isn't required by laws older than any of us to continue holding an independent atmosphere around you to prevent contamination of those Lilin and Adamite beings attempting to reach you. If, perhaps, you could bring your hatred down to 'set on fire with a glare', we could probably work out a deal."

He responded with what he knew was the reason why she was asking the impossible, "She killed my children."

"And I will never forgive her for it, my dearest, dearest, love." She held no pride in her voice as she desperately begged him to endure the unendurable, "But if you cannot let this go, even temporarily, we are going to lose our family entirely! Would your children truly want you to send their mothers after them so quickly?"

"I'll never know the answer to that." Tears of pitch leaked from his only functioning eye, "Because she killed them."

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

Misato watched as Rei Hino fought against the sniper who had taken Mikoto off the board, only a part of her mind truly appreciating the majesty of two experts at their craft dueling at long range. Makoto Kino tore apart the beachhead that had been created, giving the Section Two staff a chance to recover the Assassin and fall back further into the building. It was a delaying action, and a costly one at that. Committing two of the Sailors to a single front left far too many vulnerable, but she couldn't forsake one of her fellow wives so easily. Dozens died for her sentimentality, a weight she knew she would have to come to terms with at some point. Turning her attention to yet another pressing need, she reached out to a woman that she prayed might still want to be a part of their life after all of this, in another part of the facility under withering fire. "Topaz, I need that drone taken off the field. If that laser beam thing penetrates at the angle it's attacking, it will gut the power plant and we lose everything."

Sachiko's voice was dead and lifeless as she responded, "Roger. Second squad, lay down covering fire. Private Ushijima, get a det pack on that drone. Corporal Ueno, you're in support."

Two more brave souls sent to their deaths. All to delay the unending tide long enough for whatever was trapping Shinji to let him go. To let him rejoin the fight. Please, Shinji…come home.

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

"Gotta tell you lady," Feelgood popped up and fired several rounds from a pilfered alien weapon towards the encroaching enemy, "this rifle's something else." With the VTOL now grounded and providing physical cover for their right flank, he and his crew were supporting the engineers from Rose's ship in keeping the AA gun active to protect Shinji. Tree trunks piled in barricades provided the rest, and ten souls fought with the valor of ten hundred. "Contact, nine o'clock!"

The human crew shifted their base of fire fluidly to suppress an attempt at a flanking movement, the Adamite engineers however took a second to follow along. "We really ought to be using more standardized designations, Pilot," the lead engineer chided gently as she picked off several approaching Scions. "This system you use makes no sense to us."

Ducking back down as a landing craft made a low pass in an effort to disorient the tracking system of the heavy cannon, he laughed, "How do you measure time, lady? We use a big disc, with three hands and regular markings. Starting at twelve at the top, and working around to the left in descending order until you-" His reaction time remained one of his greatest strengths, despite not being in the cockpit. No sooner had a new foe materialized in the middle of his encampment, where any stray shots risked hitting one of the precious few people he had to hold the position, than he launched himself physically at the threat. Death was probable, but he would embrace that before he allowed Shinji to die before he did.

Dressed in a long, heavy, robe with a deep hood, the entity reached out and plucked him from the air, setting him down hard onto the ground, "Please do not expose yourself to enemy guns. That you defend The Wanderer means you are faithful to him, and so I doubt he desires your demise." With a gesture, she caused another landing craft to implode into a ball of metal and flame, "Please, [Song], I am not here to fight. Focus on the Misguided while I attempt to free him."

The lead engineer had her rifle aimed at the entity, what he believed to be a female, and began to sing with a menacing tone. She was clearly terrified, an emotion she hadn't displayed once during the firefight so far.

He recognized a superior combatant, how easily he'd been set aside made it obvious that he wouldn't win this fight hand to hand. And so Feelgood used his other weapon, a quick wit, "Can't rightly trust a person I can't see, lady. You're asking us to just let you take the man we're here to protect, and you won't even show us your face." Spying more motion, from an angle he hadn't anticipated, he stepped to the side and lifted his borrowed alien rifle, "Contact six o'clock, enemies in the wire!"

With an irritated sigh, the odd being motioned towards the ten Scions that had jumped on two of Feelgood's crew from behind. Instantly, those ten enemies crumpled into tiny balls of flesh and blood no larger than a grapefruit apiece, dropping to the ground harmlessly. If, by harmlessly one meant mentally scarring the two Lilin that were now drenched in the insides of alien beings they couldn't reason with. "Focus on them, Children. I swear to you, I am here to help him." The hood, obscuring all of the light that might have shown her face, turned back to Feelgood, "Keep your people alive. You have done well, and the vision of your people and the Children cooperating will be a welcome sight in his eyes. It might just save all of creation itself."

Hesitation, as they said, was a bullet in the head. "All right, kids, focus on your fucking sectors!" Walking in a crouch, he moved to spend some time with the two that had allowed the enemy sneak up on them by dropping their guard, "C'mon folks. We've got to do better. The walking tent says she's on our side. If she can crack the shield, we'll be able to get to Paladin. We get to Paladin, we can start making our way back to base." Firing at a few Scions he caught traces of, he broke the stasis on the rest of the team, prompting them to do the same. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the hooded figure press gauntleted hands against the dome, sending lightning crackling along the surface of both it…and her.

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

Holding a screaming Sahaquiel to his chest, her pained cries of torment raking across his mind like trillions of razor-sharp knives, Shinji looked to the others for help, "What's wrong with her?" He could feel something beginning to crack inside of him, the logjam of emotions that had formed over the decades he'd spent hunting Armisael fracturing under the weight of a child's wailing agony, "Why? Why can't I stop children from suffering?!"

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

Tsuru sang for all she was worth. Hikari and Minami flowed from person to person, from the injured to the dying, trying to give them what each of them could. Aided by Cardinal Brahe, his vestments stained and bloody, the Princess, herself seriously injured and unable to use her left arm, and the Aesthete worked together to ease their pain. Yang, Kelly, and several of the remaining diplomats, supplemented by Sachiko Ozaki and the four remaining members of Bravo, had picked up weapons from those she, Eve, and Hikari had killed, holding the door against ever increasing numbers. Eve, at that point, was locked in dire combat against a heavy drone. The machine, designed as some freakish nine-legged abomination, had fortunately become stuck in the door and couldn't bring its main guns to bear.

Still, despite all of the suffering, despite the apparent incongruity, Tsuru sang. Glowing with a pale seafoam green, she sang. Her duty, as Priestess of the Church of Ikari, was to guide the dead and dying home. Her honor was to inspire the living to fight against all odds, to defy fate and survive for one more day, one more hour, one more second if that meant sheltering the weak or injured. Her purpose was to shine like a beacon of hope, a living pennon that defied the forces of chaos. There were no words to her song, though the message was clear. Peace, to those whose fight was over. Honor, to those who carried the battle forward. Glory, under the name of Ikari.

Broadcast to the entire facility, and through the MAGI, the entire world…Tsuru sang. Every radio station, television station, and streaming platform had quickly broken from their traditional programming to speak of the alien invasion. With a direct feed to what was happening, courtesy of Maya and Ritsuko in the reinforced lab they had taken Suzuka to, every man, woman, and child heard desperate cries for help silenced forever. They heard heroism, breathing its last. They heard sacrifice, saving the lives of their fellows. They heard the best mankind had to offer, offering their best for one man…and his young wife singing a song of dauntless courage.

They heard, and they reacted with rage. How dare their governments not do everything in their power to save these people? Why were the militaries of the world just sitting there in their bases? Why were they pulling back from the treaties designed to fight against this very type of invasion? Carrying portable radios broadcasting the song, in the cold chill of the night or the burning sun of the day, people marched on city halls, on governor's mansions, on capitol buildings. They marched on churches, on town squares. They marched wherever they could to demand that those who purported to act in their best interests get off their lazy asses and do something to aid the Empire of Ikari! No sacrifice would be too great, draft them into armies if they must, but sitting still as that beautiful young woman sang of tragedy and hope was unthinkable. Unforgivable! They all knew someone who had received one of his letters, who had been touched by his gentle kindness. What would their leaders do for the citizens who protested, for even the lowest person that he tried to help, if those leaders weren't willing to lift a finger to help the best of them all?

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

"We're going to be fired for this, if we're not just killed outright," Ritsuko chuckled, the bleak humor of the situation preventing her from continuing to cry at the tragedy of it all. "Hacking the MAGI here is a capital offense. Reversing the triple six system I set up to protect us from a hack and turning it on the other linked nodes? I doubt that even proximity to Shinji is going to keep us out of trouble."

Maya held Suzuka's limp hand, resting the back of it against her forehead and trying desperately to think of anything else she could do to help everyone. They were trapped behind walls too thick to breach, despite the enemy at the gates giving it their best efforts. Her lover was unconscious, trapped in a coma that she could only presume was induced by the loss of the twins she'd been carrying. Her wife was trapped under the press of numbers, kept alive by a being that was powerful…but only one being against hundreds. Her husband was somewhere on the field of battle, pinned to a tree, bleeding and healing in equal measure. And here she sat…surrounded by three women she loved. Kyoko had left sometime in the early fighting, promising to return if she could be of assistance but desperate to check on Asuka. The good news was, nobody seemed to be heading towards the prisons. The bad news, the redhead had checked out and was lying unresponsive in her cell staring at the ceiling.

"We need to change out the bag," Kodama gently rubbed Maya's back. "Hina-san, can you annotate the record?" The busty nurse was, in her own way, trying to keep everyone's spirits up.

The twin doctors, armed and prepared to fight whatever came through the door, both made a gesture of affirmation as one. Hina tapped out a key sequence, and Rina countersigned the orders. Neither had spoken since the assault began, at least not aloud. There was a dread hanging off of them, the missing Temple weighing on their minds.

Maya was an ardent believer in the miracle of Science. That the methods and means by which humans discovered the world around them were a dynamic tool which could be applied to any problem large or small. Reality, of course, had its limitations. Science would not provide a method for restoring…. A small sob escaped her lips, the memory of the viscera that had been violently ejected from Suzuka tearing at her heart. "We…we can flood the corridor outside. The Bakelite injectors for the fire suppression systems, if we trigger them it should suffocate the Scions."

"Solid plan," Ritsuko agreed quickly. Working through the camera angles of the hallway she prepared the command, "More are coming. Carrying something heavy. Going to wait for them to get closer." A dark grin crossed her lips, "If I overload them, it should crush a number of them and push the others back out of cover into the fields of fire from Jade. I'll contact Misato before I punch the button. Good thinking, Maya."

"Yeah…sure." The thought of blood rushing out of Suzuka had prompted it, and those thoughts were anything but 'good'.

+++++ 16th Angel + 0: Tuesday, December 6th (131)

"Someone is attacking the shield," Leliel declared suddenly, inspiration striking her. "Someone strong enough to actually damage it, that has to be it!" Hurrying over, she grabbed one of Shinji's shoulders and shook him, "You have to let this go and get out there to protect Sahaquiel! Damn it, is my sister worth your vengeance?! Are you going to defend her or are you going to wait until your hatred forces you to avenge her?"

Shinji blinked, the walls around his heart fracturing violently, anger overwhelming hate, "You're right." Gently handing over the agonized Aspect of the Sky, his damaged, empty, eye blazing to life in blue flames to join the black of the less injured orb, he stood to his full height, "We are going out there. If it is hostile to us, it dies. No quarter. No mercy. No one is on the sidelines; I want each of you to do whatever you can." Looking down, he considered Leliel and Sahaquiel, "You two go to Misato. Wherever she is. Tell her what is happening, aid her if you can." Steeling his heart, he wiped the pitch-black tears from his cheek, "I will return for her."

"We will be here with you," Ireul promised. "Let us go save our family."

Relaxing his will was different, this time. Like holding onto a rope as it slips through your hands, he felt a burning pain along his body. Hate, such as he had always known lurked there, was being shoved back into the depths of his soul. The beast once more being tethered by chains of duty, of love, of obligation. His children were gone, forever. It was time to fight for his wives.

+++++ Author's Notes:

Guest: RE: Well wishes.

Thank you. I hope everyone is keeping their spirits up during these very trying times.

Blackplant: RE: Boiling Empire.

Humans gonna hume.

Martial Arts Master:

RE: Armisael.

Her Goof-o-Meter is in the "Done" position.

RE: Sailors Senshi.

I'm glad. Their part to play is approaching rapidly.

Tommaso Paolo Borrelli: RE: Publishing.

Ah, no. Anno-sensei would sue me into oblivion and I would deserve it.

TripleF:

RE: Expectations and blindsides.

I try to foreshadow without beating people over the head, and I'm very glad that it's both understandable and fulfilling for my readers.

RE: Notes.

My friend, *MY* notes contest my story's word count, and I'm in my own head. I can't imagine the kind of analysis a credentialed psychologist would manage on my prose.

RE: COVID-19.

My job, fortunately/unfortunately, requires that I risk constant exposure to those stricken with this virus. I'm blessed to have employment, when so many don't. I am, however, considered "essential" and that means safety is not something I enjoy.

ZF IAnswerToNoOne: RE: Chapter 57.

I loved that chapter. I miss those days in the story, in many ways. While it was setting up the rest of the drama/trauma train, there was potential at that point to take this story in a much different direction. A pure romance was possible, but wouldn't have told the story I have meant to tell. I'm glad you're enjoying the story, and that you found the chapter to your liking. (Please don't hate the rest of the story.)