CHAPTER 9

Gendo was not happy, not one bit. First his son has grown a spine, and now he no longer has any control over Ritsuko. He was pissed. He sighed as a notification popped up on his phone. It was an emergency meeting pop up for SEELE. He got up and headed to the meeting room, where he was greeted by an annoyed looking Keel. "Ikari… We have just received word of your "guests"… We know of their goal, and we need you to to help them get out of here, make sure they do not return. We cannot have any contaminants during Instrumentality." Gendo scowled but nodded. "Keep them subdued and under control Ikari, your failure will not be tolerated." And with a click of a button all the holograms disappeared. Gendo growled as he stormed into his office and picked up his phone and made a call. The call rang a few before it was picked up. "Dr Akagi, You are ordered to help the outsiders with the construction of the portal when you have the time." … "Y-Yes sir, understood." He hung up the phone and sighed. He walked over to his desk and opened a drawer and pulled out a bottle of whiskey, this was just another setback.

Gordon woke up with with the feeling of arms wrapped around him. He looked to his right and saw Ritsuko sleeping next to him with her head on his chest. He smiled and closed his eyes, only to be woken back up by his alarm. "Mmm… I don't wanna get up…" Ritsuko said groggily holding onto Gordon tighter. "We have a Sync test today… Come on, I'll make some coffee. And you can go shower." She then gave a slow nod before getting up. Gordon looked over to see her pale nude figure in the artificial sunlight, and smiled. He got up and got into a robe he bought and headed to the kitchen to make breakfast. He tossed out the old pot and made a fresh one. He got out the cereal and made two bowls. Ritsuko headed into the shower and washed away the tiredness. She got dried and put on her clothes. She sat at the table eating her cereal. "I must say Gordon, you certainly treat me better than the last guy." Gordon turned in confusion at that statement. "Who was the last guy?" Ritsuko sighed. "Nothing we need to worry about now." She took a sip of the pot of coffee and let out a sigh. She checked her phone to see it was 9:30 AM. "Shit, we are going to be late, come on let head out." Gordon nodded and walked out the door with her only to have the Angel Alarm go off. "Shit!" They rushed though the Geo-Front only to see and hear a large explosion from the top of the Geo-Front. Then they saw the strangely humanoid looking angel descend from the hole. They ran faster and faster, down hallways past the rush of people, until they made it to the bridge.

"What's the status of the pilots?" Ritsuko yelled. "They are being suited up and are standing by." Misato then ran in. "Evacuate all non essential personnel! Bring us up to Battle condition one!" Gordon turned to leave but was stopped by Ritsuko. "Where are you going? We need you here!" Gordon stopped and turned to Ritsuko with a serious expression. "I need to go and help people evacuate and I have to escort my two friends in here." She gave him a worried look and was about to say something but Gordon cut her off. "Don t worry Ill get my HEV Suit and Gravity gun, Ill be alright…" She didn't say anything and slowly let him go. He then ran off in the direction of her lab. She looked on in worry, but had to focus on the situation at hand. "Pilots are ready for launch!" Maya yelled out to Misato, who in turn turned to yell at her back. "LAUNCH THE EVAS"

Gordon ran down the hallways in search of his friends. He ran into the storage room where they were located and found them huddled around the terminal. "Whats going on Gordon?" Alyx asked as she ran over to him. "An Angel has breached the Geo-front, I'm taking you guys to the bridge." As they followed him to the door, they heard the loud sound of gunshots and thuds. Gordon quickly brought his Gravity Gun at the ready and aimed at the door. The door was then opened to reveal men in Black-Ops gear with their rifled pointed at them. Gordon immediately pulled the attract trigger and yanked the guns out of their hands. He handed one to Alyx, and a pistol to Arnold. Gordon then shot the two men, who were about to swing with their knives. The intercom for the room went off. "Gordon, the Magi detected Gunshots in your area, Are you OK?" Gordon rushed over to the intercom post and pressed a button. "Yes we are all OK, some men in tactical gear showed up and killed the two guards outside. We are going to try and head to the bridge now, I'll keep a look out for any more invaders." … "Alright, keep safe you three…" The call was hung up as Gordon and the crew ran out of the room to head to the Bridge. Just then a rather large explosion was heard, followed by an intercom announcement. "UNIT-00 is down! I repeat: Unit-00 is down!" Gordon was now worried, Rei was a very good pilot, its either she messed up or the Angel was stronger, he hoped it wasn't the latter.

They soon reached the bridge, just in time to see the two remaining EVAs battle against the powerful angel. "Gordon what happened over there?" Ritsuko said with worry as she rushed over to him, despite the jealous looking Alyx behind him. "Someone tried to kill us when I went to retrieve them." Ritsuko went over and hugged Gordon. "Ahem, So whats the situation? What happened to the intruders?" Gordon sighed and held out the gun he took from them. "This is what happened." Ritsuko was frighted that they had killed the two. "From where we are from, we have to kill a lot of things, Gordon especially. He killed over 200 HECU Marines in Black Mesa." Misato stepped over and put a hand on his shoulder. "He did what he needed to do, and we can't blame him, but for now, we need to focus on the Angel at hand. The MAGI has code named it Zuruel. Rei's unit's limbs got hacked off and she can no longer do any damage. Units 1 and 2 are still active and are combating it as we speak." Gordon turned to look at the monitor and saw that the angel was attacking them with all its might. They thought the battle would be evenly matched, but soon fate had other plans. As Asuka charged in with positron cannon, Zuruel quickly launched his arm straight for the Red giant's head. "ASUKA LOOK OUT!" Shinji cried out as he ran over to push her out of the way. But it was already too late. Asuka cried out in pain as her Unit was swiftly decapitated. "ASUKA!" Shinji screamed as he ran over and shielded her headless unit. "Unit 02 is now down, its all up to you Shinji!"

In Shinji's mind, only one emotion remained. Rage. Summoning all his strength he charged in towards the angel. "Shinji's Sync rate is rising at rapid speeds, he has passed 120%" Ritsuko turned to face Maya, and quickly looked at the vitals monitor. "Shinji, You need to calm down! Your sync rate is rising too high!" She cried out, but was met with signal loss. "Pilot Reading are now lost!" The whole bridge now panicking as to what to do to stop this. The Eva's mouth guard broke open revealing the human like teeth it hid. Unit one then began tearing off its pylons. It led out a mighty roar as it charged in, ready to kill. As the Eva got close enough, Zuruel rose his AT Field to try and stop it. Unit 1 roared and tore apart the field as if it was a piece of paper. The Angel quickly launched its razor sharp arms towards the Berserk Unit, only to have it be caught in both hands. Unit 1 then lunged towards the angel. It landed right on top of it, and it began to pound the face of the angel. Zuruel couldn't stop the rampaging EVA in time as the Purple giant crushed its face in. As the Angel was motionless, Unit 1 began to tear into the Angel with its teeth. Devouring the being.

The bridge stood in shock, gasps were hear, and some people gagging at the sound and sight. "What's it doing?…" Alyx asked in horror. "Its eating the Angel…" Said Ritsuko, who was visibly shaking. After a minute or so, the EVA let out a roar, the computers in the bridge went off. "Unit 1… Has obtained a S2 drive…" Said Makoto who looked on in fear. Soon after the Eva went still and shut down. Everyone was speechless, Until Misato broke the silence. "Whats the status on our pilots?…" Maya was the first to speak. "Asuka and Rei are unconscious but are alive…" Maya then mutter something in horror. "Whats wrong with Shinji?" Misato asked very worried. "Shinji is no longer in the Entry plug… All that's left is… Some DNA, and his plug suit… He's… gone…" This did not go well with Misato. "He-He i-is gone?" She was starting to tremble, and eventually fell to her knees and began to sob loudly. Gordon didn't want to get her more upset so he told the bridge to get the rescue crews out there. Ritsuko went over and hugged Misato, rubbing her back. Misato Began muttering the same phrase over and over in Japanese. Unbeknownst to them, Gendo Ikari smiled in his spot on God's Throne in the bridge, but standing next to him was a horrified and disgusted Kozo Fuyutsuki. He had let this happen.

After a bit of coaxing Misato to move, she did so hesitantly and with much help. Gordon felt awful for her. Arnold helped her calm down with a vortiguant technique. And Alyx gave her some water. Gordon went over to Ritsuko with Arnold beside him. "We need to talk, and Arnold here will help us with our issue. Ritsuko was afraid that Gordon was catching on to the truth and pulled him aside. "W-What is it that you need to talk about?" Gordon pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "We know what happened 12 years ago, its the same thing that happened here. And I'm taking Arnold to Communicate with Unit 01 and with Yui and Shinji." Ritsuko's eyes widened at the information that he knew. "W-Who told you this?" … "I cant say, but they want to stop this before it gets too far." Ritsuko thought about this for a moment and sighed. "Alright, we need to be careful so Gendo doesn't find out about this, I'll get you to the Unit once it comes in and is cleared. Just… Be careful." Ritsuko walked away looking worried.

After coordinating with the rescue teams, Asuka and Rei were brought in for debriefing, But only one handled it calmly. Asuka was full of pure despair. "THE ONE PERSON WHO CARED ABOUT ME IS GONE!" She swung a chair around, it took Gordon and Shigeru to restrain her without being hit. After a bit she began to break down and was eventually let go. She pounded her fist into the ground crying. Rei on the other hand was blankly staring at the ground, not replying to anyone with her voice, but simple nods and shakes. Her eyes looked blank, and if you were to look closely you could see a small tear falling down her face. They were then dismissed and sent home. Unit 01 was brought in and Arnold and Gordon was sent to it's cage. "The armor is interfering with the connection. We must remove it." Gordon nodded and motioned to the nearby technicians to begin removing the chest piece. They began to remove it when Gordon heard something click behind him. He slowly turned around to see Gendo pointing a gun at him. "I Think it would be in your best interest if you'd explain yourself doctor Freeman…"

Uh oh! Gordon's in trouble now! It took me a long time to finish this chapter, because of how to write it, and because of I didn't have enough time for it. Anyways please Review and like, and ill see you in the Next Chapter!

-DerpymanMt