Chapter 19: Asuka returns.

Fun fact: Mari's voice actress voice Kurisu from Stein's gate. In a sense, this makes Shinji like Okabe since he's the guy trying to put everything right while his superiors do almost nothing while Rei is like Maiyuri since she's the girl Shinji tries without success to save.
So when you think of Mari, think of a time travelling student trying to set the past right.

Squid girl POV

I understand general. I completely and wholly understand the incredibly guilt you freely choose to display to me here and now.
Another blotch of putrid ink splatter from my gaping mouth in shock, as another cry of incredibly pain yowls out from outside. I've an awful feeling that we'll eventually have to abandon this tank once it becomes flooded with the noxious bodily fluid of my lamentation.
The entire cabin already reeks of the nasty smell that is beginning to cause us both to gag and wheeze.

You and me both general. Neither of us take pleasure from the inevitable suffering we are reluctantly against both our wills to inflict on those hapless inklings.
It's sad. So sad. It's a sad, sad situation.
And it's getting more and more absurd.

It's sad. So sad. Why can't we talk it over?
And it seems to me.
That sorry seems to be the hardest word.

Kaworu POV
There is strategical reasoning in our tactical decision to not gun straight for NERV's headquarters guns blazing. Not least of all because it's likely to be the most well-guarded perimeter in the vicinity.
I dare a glance poking my head out the hatch to catch sight of a group of grateful civilians. Men, women and their innocent children flocking for escape as our relentless cannon fire and ramming keeps the NERV personnel at bay.

Tokyo 3 wasn't a residence. It was a prison. A cage to hold in the citizens it once loyally attended the needs of. These guards were not posted to keep the Angels out. There were Evangelions for that and if this was their purpose, they were very poorly armed.
For goodness sake, the bolt action rifle and the tank I had pilfered from them were at least six decades behind technology.
There was an army that tried to stop us but the only reason we struggled at all is because we were but two fighters sharing one tank.

These guards were never posted to keep danger out but to keep the people herded like cattle within.
It perfectly explained why I always found it odd that no one chose to move out to the myriad of safer locations that should have been, within easy reach even considering the harsh conditions brought about by the impact.
Russia or Arstotska as most would call it, had been far more liberal with its border control since the order of the EZIC star overturned its previous dictator Dimitri.
Not a professional platoon of well-armed natural born killers but a single selfless border inspector made the revolution possible through his courageous bravery with which he defied his totalitarian superiors. His statue still stood mighty and proud in the Kremlin square.

Proof that one-man armies were a reality and not a pipe dream.
Definitive proof that there were other lesser men who had accomplished what Shinji had with less

This attack was meant as a diversion to let every innocent who hadn't thrown their lot in with madmen and corrupt bankers have their chance to escape.
But above all else. There was one greater ulterior motive.

"See how just one tank, one cannon and two mounted gun sponsons can carve an army?"
I call out above the din of cannon and machine gun fire.
"Witness our power and realize the useless of the Evangelion."

I pass by a big and shiny vault. A NERV vault judging by the opulent flashing neon sign on its entrance.
It is constructed of the finest marble money can afford and bursting within is bound to be a fortune of laundered money that could feed a third world country.
Shiny, sparkly money. Blood money gotten only through sadism to feed an already fattened tyrant.

"It's not about the money." I call out through a loud hailer that I also discovered beneath my feet a while ago. "It's about sending a message."

Knowing what I knew that NERV would never be generous enough to let anyone but its own and SEELE's greatest superiors inside their stash, I let loose with all the remaining ammunition as I razed the structure utterly to the ground.
I bombarded away until nothing was left but rubble upon which I emptied the complete load of the side guns until a great fire roared upon the wreckage from the burst gas mains, sending a gigantic plume of smoke billowing into the slowly brightening dawn sky.

"Everything burns." I triumphantly announce with a flourish as the fires continue to burn and we drive away.
It was a good thing NERV kept their vaults far from any houses or shops out of their greediness.
Perhaps someday I would look back on this regretful decision to not share out the funds more fairly to those who most needed it.
But while I was no genius, I had also not failed economics 101.

Wealth was never lost. Only redistributed. Burning several million yen only increased the value of every remaining note in the most fair and honest way possible since no one had more of an advantage and no one less.

Shinji POV
"Breakfast is ready" I'm called to attention as my eyes slowly flicker open to find Angelo's waifu Lola ringing a bell with one hand as she taps the bowl of cornflakes it takes me several seconds to realize, have been placed directly on my duvet along with a smorgasbord of deliciously scented delicacies.
Bread, Sausage and egg and a very generous box of double-glazed maple sauce doughnuts.

"I figured you might need to build up your strength again so I laid out a big buffet for you." the pink haired green kimono explained as I spare a look sideways to see Rei and Mari receiving similar services from Candy and Angelo respectively.

The dark haired, dark skinned Sherwood was nearby bent over the screen of his computer. Dark Kyosuke, I preferred to refer to him with his uncanny resemblance in his mannerisms if not his appearance to a very unsupportive student friend in my school I once tried to find companionship but only found apathy in instead.
"To check if the stealth jet which was due to pick us up was still coming along fine" he explained.
"Which it seems to be doing just fine and might even arrive this evening rather than tommorow."

"And in bed too..." I'm able with a very nervous stutter to reply. "Aww thanks Lola..."

"Shhh" She hushes me with a finger to her lips as she raises a spoonful of milky coco pop cereals .
"Here comes the plane."
She imitates the sound of a passenger jetting with near perfection as I shyly obey and she plops the yummy contents into my mouth which I almost down into the wrong pipe through my timidness at receiving such warm hospitality from a German who reminds me far too greatly of a certain other German whose name will not be mentioned for the sake of all of us.

Who from this day forward will be known only as "the she who must not be named"
Der Rotehaar(red hair) Berliner ohne (without) eine name.
I spent hours studying her native tongue to please her but even this went unnoticed. Months of extracurricular after school academy training wasted.
In fact, I got hit harder when I came home since I was late serving (name withheld)'s food.

Outside of my insane fantasies, this was the closest that reality would ever come of my former roommate giving me the faint glimmer of proper respect.
It felt so good, but it hurt so bad at the same time when it took several blinks for me to come once more to the harsh realization that I was not in my unheated and messy apartment any longer.

As well as how this new German did not have (no-name)'s deep shade of rouge in her shorter but much prettier twin tails which seemed to be styled in this colour and style specifically to distinguish herself from the aforementioned (unnamed).

"It's really nice of you and your friends to care for us in our time of need." I hesitantly mutter following a gulp that nearly gets the cereal into my windpipe.
"We'll try our best not to be a burden."

"It's no trouble" The pink hair modestly replies with a slight bow that nearly trips her in a fashion I could not help but stiffle a giggle at. "Anything else I can do for you. Genius?"

Genius. The opposite of idiot.
The sweetest word in the dictionary for me to hear even thrown around but this time it was actually directed at me.
I tried to shake myself. This had to be a dream?
(Anonymous) would wake me up any minute and bark at me to make breakfast or enjoy her homemade speciality of knuckle sandwiches.

I turn to Rei and then to Mari for any source of counsel they as my two lifelong buddies could make.
They are firmly occupied with being fed their own most important meal of the day by their unwaveringly attentive stewards.

"Um no. You've already..." I try to say but then think better of as she blinks her eyes twice and stretches her smile out the slightest bit more.
"Well..." I eventually consider...

A few minutes and I was never feeling more pleasant sensations than in the present as I was rubbed back, neck, shoulder and feet in the identical manner I was forced against my will to do to (Nameless) every night.
With how knackered my Evangelion battles left me, it was all too easy to make a mistake or not have the strength to rub hard enough through no fault of my own.

Not content to simply claim victory as the world's finest chef of knuckle sandwiches, my ex-colleague and roommate was also a great athlete.
A fantastic footballer whose foot power put all the other olympic champions to shame.
Messi and Beckham were put to shame by the dynamite like power in both the sole and tip of her powerful feet.

Power that was used to great effect when she practiced as a great athlete aught frequently to do against her chosen dummy of choice. A living dummy that might as well be dead with how little he could do to complain as the training for the grand seasons begun with a fast and furious flurry of warm up kicks against the "ball" to see how far she could send it flying or if she could even force it off its sticking point.

"Um thank you Lola"

"Keine probleme Shinji."

My better instincts tell me to stop there as my massage companion free of charge pants and rubs her arms a little following half an hour of nonstop exertion but my inner soul belays all reason.

Not five minutes later, I'm munching merrily still in bed from a bundle of grapes that Lola dangles above me in the ideal position.
Rei and Mari have both given me their good morning blessings as they are led away by the rest of the gang to play some Marie's Kart on a still working television master engineer Sherwood has fixed up and found the controllers for.

From their excited noises of explanation audible from the other room, Rei's won every game to the good-natured round of applause of her opponents.
One of the great things about being a part Angel was their superhuman reflexes.

Time and time again I braced myself for a vicious blow to my face that never came as I continued to chew. I uncontrollably put my hand to my ears expecting a derogatory insult delivered at the volume of a low flying jet plane.
I tucked my legs close to my chest so that the kick that I knew was coming would at least not target my groin which was the most damaging vital organ it could target.

But it never came.
Because (name not available) wasn't here.
Instead, the bunch of purple seedless continued to dangle patiently right where it was waiting for me to take my own time.
It waved a little as Lola's fatigued arm sagged briefly only to quickly straighten once again.

"Take your time. Winner." She politely tells me.
Winner. The opposite to loser.
The second most common insult hurled in my direction by everyone including a very angry Rei once after I insulted my father by complete accident.

"Th, thank you." I quaver as I sniff and once again return to my unmanly tendency of crying at the most inappropriate times.
This time it isn't out of sadness.
A twisted amalgamation of pleasure and grief blazes within my conflicted soul as I swallow the entire rest of the bunch in one go to hasten the ordeal and relieve Lola's muscle of the pointless ache I had been causing with my momentary bout of selfishness.
I thank her with a sob as I finally get out of bed and agree that it is time to go join the others in the gaming tournament in the adjacent room.

The less self-loathing part of my conscience tries to comfort me that it was merely a test to see if this was but a dream after all.
The part that presses me daily to end my pointless existence so that everyone around me can finally get on with their contented lives in my absence, shames me relentlessly.

It was true that she wanted to do all this for me and that not one single one of her services were forced.
But it was also true that I was letting my selfish side show again in part as revenge for all the traumatic humiliation I had been put through all my life.
I would never force anyone to waste such exorbitant energies for my own self-serving cruelty. But had I not snapped myself back to reality through sheer force of inner will, I very will would have sunk to the same depth as a certain redhead I used to know.

"Please don't be mad at me for being a little worn out earlier to come and join you" I pleadingly cry as I enter the game room.
"Please understand Rei-chan. Please. My father's outrageous missions for me completely blew my steam away and I just needed a bit of extra rest and recuperation because I couldn't stand it anymore."

As I speak, my right hand quickly balls into a fist which swings itself into my nose.
It aims for the exact spot I know will hurt the most to be punched.
I need to punish myself before both my beloved and my loyal friends to restore virtuousness and prove my integrity.
But the ball mace of skin, muscle and bones never reaches its target as Rei chan spots my suspicious movement and in the blink of an eye grabs my hand.

I try to force it but she latches on tighter.
"Shinji. Don't be sorry. I understand. I really do. Your father and Asuka took a lot out of you so it's only right that you catch a much-needed break."
She sounds more apologetic than I do as she looks straight into my eyes with hers to show her complete sincerity in having nothing to blame on me.
"Just please don't hit yourself. It hurts me so badly."

"I'll try to get it under control Rei" I promise as I sit down beside her on a comfy beanbag and pickup my own controller that she passes to me as she gives a brief explanation of the controls.
I pick the purple clad suspect looking character Valerie Gottfried (Valerie-G). She's the greatest hero no matter what anyone else might say. Like me she is simply very misunderstood and underrated.
She also has the fastest kart with the greatest handling to boot.

Rei selects the green shirted Louise Gallagher (Louise-G with an almost silent S)
Mari has as expected taken the mascot of the game Marie Octavia (Marie-O)
"They're named after real celebrities you know?" She sagely adds as an afterthought as I familiarize myself just in time for the start of the first virtual race that I will play a part in along with all my friends both old and new.

Then as our on screen carts of our choice rev into action as we grip our controllers tighter in unison to shift focus from the real to the virtual world for the time being, I allow the last doubts in my mind to fade as I let the grin tugging at my lips show itself in its entirety.
This was real. Of course it was. How could I be so lost in my own imagination to think it unreal.
We had found our paradise and nothing and no one could force us back.

Asuka POV

"I...found...you" I growl with a maddened twitch.
I had stayed awake the entire last night taking my special EVA left and right in search of my idiot and his not so merry gang of friend stealers.

I had no choice but to leave Rei alive if I was to get the full promised reward that the commander himself promised me.
But there were no orders concerning what to do with Mari.

"You and I are going to have a lovely time. Brit." I whisper hoarsely as I rub my hands together in eager anticipation.
"You are going to regret ever coming to stick your brown nose in my business that you have no right to." The thought of all the torturous ways I could make her suffer before putting her down so that she never bothered me again, made me beam as I stared at the red on my hands before rubbing my still sore head.

You'll go back to your country Mari. In a coffin.
The bells of Westminster abbey will have a field day.

"Don't think you'll be completely safe either Rei." I quietly remark.
"After I get you back to the commander and he rewards me, the one thorn in my side will be getting you out of the way while making it look like a complete accident I had no part in."

The tracking device of the improved EVA was really effective at its job.
Ten miles away and it already detected the abnormally high power levels of the three escapees Evangelion pilots.
They could hide but they could not hide their insane off the chart latent synchronization parameters which nearly caused my EVA to malfunction.

"I am coming, my dear idiot" I trill as I hasten my march through the seemingly endless clump of trees which fall like dominoes as I bash my way through.
"You cannot hide from true love."

Like a lot of inconsiderate brats with no appreciation for the women who worked tirelessly to give them purpose in their pointless existences, my idiot had a great penchant for my knuckle sandwiches which he practically salivated at the prospect of receiving.
Well count yourself a lucky star Shinji.

My fists are fiddly today and all that energy needs to go somewhere.

"Follow my lead" I harshly call into my communication device as the combined running engines of close to a thousand tanks, humvees, jets and bombers come into earshot.

You were coming with us, my dearest love Shinji whether you choose to or not.

Our bombardment will blot out the sun.

Lola POV
I could tell that something was not right with the legendary hero that drove us to journey across distant shores to this barbaric land of endless warfare.
He was not as he was meant to be.
I saw in his eyes. I felt it in his smile.
I sense it in the incredibly limited interaction he struggles to uphold with the love of his life Rei despite their wholly genuine love for one another.

Mari had told me the reason long before I sight eyes on Shinji personally to see first-hand the extent that the domestic abuse had broken him beyond repair.

Oh Asuka. Why?
What had you been up to these years after we parted ways as fellow Berliners?
More rather. After I parted ways with you.

I left you behind thinking I was the cause of your nastiness. Your complete lack of regard for the wellbeing of the other kindergarten children who shared our establishment of education when we were but young and naïve simpletons who did not know the true coldness of life's bleak ways.

You hated my stupid name for being too nonsensical to take seriously. You found my unhealthy amount of green in my choice of fashions an unsightly contrast with your preference of red.
You despised the pinkness of my hair passed down in my line following the passing of my valiant magical girl ancestor Madoka.

But I think that more than anything, you hated how my outgoing eagerness to give it my all in my first impressions made me very friendly with a lot of the other kids.
I offered you a chance to join our circle many times. Honestly, I did.

You replied to me with a vicious backhand blow the second the teacher turned her back. A powerful movement that knocked me in the ribs and sent me flying down a set of stairs.
Thank goodness they were not very high and that I landed on my back to the wall.
It knocked me down pretty bad even if thankfully no long-lasting damage was done and I needed a trip to matron. Knowing it would be pointless to try and convince anyone otherwise as well as to give you a chance, I explained it was just an accident. I tripped and fell.
Shot through the heart and you're to blame. You give kindergarten a bad name.

You told me green and pink were red's greatest enemy and that I did not deserve popularity the way you did. "I'm so sorry I made you feel that way Asuka." were my last words before my mother in her wise kindness moved me to another school where I met Sherwood (from Mainz) and Candy (from Stuttgart).

They were sympathetic to my situation and tided me over until the happiest day of my life when I was eight where my parents moved to the US for a new job with my friend's parents by great fortune deciding the same. NERV displaced a lot of jobs when they decided to downsize for no apparent logical reason.
Germany had bratwursts, currywursts, black forest gateau and streets of solid gold.
America had Angelo Rules and his perfect plans.

I never went a school without meeting at least one tell-tale bully who was good at tricking the grownups they were perfectly behaved but in reality, anything but.
What changed was that now I had greater stakes with like-minded friends to care about.
It was one thing to submit to a bully so that they were done with me quickly but watching my friends be harmed while I stood and did nothing was where I drew the line.

I know without asking that Shinji would call me a better Asuka. I would amend his statement and say I'm a slightly luckier version of himself who happened not to be completely neglected and left alone.
My green clothes and pink hair were at one point in the past just another personal preference of colours and a part of my family lineage (You think Madoka was weird with her pink hair but Hitomi had leaf green and Sayaka sky blue).
Now they are my rebellious message.

My message of denouncement. My denouncement of Asuka and every principle she stood for.
Asuka had given me the greatest presents in my childhood that I could never be thankful enough for.
She had given me the ultimate lesson in how not to treat those I would call friend and compadre.
She bestowed upon me my purpose in life.

For every bit Asuka was cruel, I vowed to be kind.
For each act of suffering that she brought to someone, I would be the end of suffering to another. My tragically misguided bully stood for eternal sadness and never-ending war.
I lived for laughter and friendship.

Life was not complete without these great things as stupid as they might sound.
Food could nourish the body. But only fun and the warmth of common human decency did the same for the soul. Asuka. I thank you for your many lessons.
I will never forget them.

Oh look. During the time I was lost in thought, Shinji quickly grasped the game and came first place with flying colours while I came last.
He's a completely new player too. Beginner's luck for anyone else. Great dedication to being the best he can be no matter the situation in the best interest of his friends for him.

Rei is first to cheer him followed by me and Angelo before Sherwood and Candy join us in lifting Shinji over our shoulder and tossing him in the air.
He needs to know that from this day on, his successes will be treated with the dignity they deserve.

Boom!
The ground shakes. With a great cry of surprise, the group loses their grip on the ground and on Shinji who thankfully drops to a comfy beanbag unhurt.

"What's going on?" Mari is first to quizzically inquire, scratching her head and correcting her glasses which were knocked out of position.

"I'll go check" I quickly volunteer as I grab a set of binoculars from a nearby table.
To ask Shinji or Rei to go would separate them as lovers and I had no intention of disrespecting them so.

I flip my pink hair back as I quickly climb the stairs to the rooftop doorway that will give me the best view of the circumstances outside.
A vicious gust of wind almost blows me over as I flip open the door and raise the binoculars to my large green eyes.
What I see, almost makes my heart thud out of my chest as bile quickly coats my tongue.
I double back feeling ice in my blood as I bang my head on the doorframe.
It leaves me a nasty bruise that will not heal for quite some time.

I slap my mouth hard for my loose tongue as my mind tries without success to take stock of our hellish situation which could not have been worse if the devil himself burst from hell in pursuit of us.
Kyubey the emotionless incubator would have jumped out of his skin at the terrors closing in on us.
Terrors we could not have imagined in our worst nightmares.
Horrors we'd not wish on our worst enemy.

Considering our worst enemy was the danger now briskly closing the distance between herself and our stronghold we thought for certain would be completely hidden.
A literal code red was on our hands.

My vision was swimming and blurry as I picked myself back up and shut the thankfully bulletproof door behind me just as a hail of machine gun fire pattered harmlessly against it.
I clutched my ailing skull throughout my descent down the stairs which seemed to wobble madly with every clumsy step I took.
I crash once more into another wall as I fail to make the turn blundering down the final steps fast enough. My brain shakes in my skull as my blurry sight becomes double vision.

I can scarcely even make out my own thoughts as I hobble rather than run back into the room with the others anxiously awaiting my news.

Angelo steps before me and says something I don't understand.
I know that he wants to know what is wrong.

"Angelo. Angelo. Wir haben eine grobe situation" I manage to convey, my language lobes having defaulted to German after they were badly bonked by two head first collisions which would cost me my faculties for quite some time.

"Was ist passiert?" Sherwood tries more sensitively to ask, realizing was wrong from the bruise on my forehead and the fact this was not the first time he'd seen me like this.
I ignore him with a heavy heart as I point a shaking finger at Shinji who is holding Rei in his arms trying to comfort her through this catastrophe.

"Shinji. Es tut mir lied. Asuka kommt gleich."

Rei seems confused by my foreign dialect.
Shinji however, efficiently understands every word and relays them dutifully to the others who don't know German in Japanese as I continue to babble semi-coherently in my native language. Mari does the same in English.

"Everyone get to the armoury and quickly" I manage to comprehend Angelo ordering us as the urgency of the situation does a little to clear my head.
I will not let Asuka take Shinji and Rei back. For his own good and for my moral principles and those principles I had sworn on bended knee before Angelo when I became part of his gang.

I ready my wits and steady my nerves enough to follow the others in their frenzied beeline for the weapon cache Angelo wisely insisted we keep as contingency.
They were battle ready and well maintained but none of them bore the label "Anti Evangelion" specifically.

I had seen Asuka topple twenty Angels alone in her EVA from news clips NERV saw fit to broadcast globally to lobby its supreme dominance.
That was with a lesser EVA half the size as the one she was using now.
That one certainly didn't shake the ground with each step it took.

"Help us Madoka and Homura (Madoka's dearest and dare I say, only true ally)" I prayed silently. "Save our souls. Deliver us from evil. Take my life if you must but spare Shinji, Rei and the rest of them from this awful fate worse than death."

My journey to Japan had taught me a lot about the great hero and heroine we idolized.
But it most of all taught us that Shinji and Rei's greatest enemy wasn't the Angels.
It was their bully. Since while an Angel could always be defeated in battle with enough raw power, a bully was an evil within that sometimes remained hidden from even their victims for entire lifetimes completely untouchable.

We would return as free men or not at all.
If all else fails. Myself have power to die.

Special thanks and appreciations to fictionelement777, neoWarkid4, bandiras, An enemy of the state, Fantasian, Kycosoccerref and every other unnamed guest for your kind and generous reviews. Each one just brings tears of joy to my depressed and struggling life of failure and sadness.
You make me proud to be a fanfiction member and an Evangelion fan. As usual any reviews welcome and sincerely appreciated.

You are all great people. Thank you for reading and see you all next time and bye.