Broken heroes
Chapter 9: your son looks as good as an angel (part 2)
The next morning
"Beep beep beep beep beep beep"
"ugh, waking up is more annoying than the baka, oh well at least he has made breakfast. I can sense it's beautiful smell from here… Oh no he's coming"
"Hey Asuka? Are you awake? Breakfast is ready"
"a couple more minutes third"
"It's already 9:30"
"WHAT, what are you waiting for we'll be late for school!"
"but you don't care about going there, plus today is Sunday"
"it is?... At least we'll have the day free"
And then she thought "I really want to hang out with you today"
But then Misato burst into the room and said "I'm sorry guys, but you'll be busy at NERV today, you have to do some tests and also help Hayden and the others make the ship fly again"
"How can we help? I'm an airforce captain not an expert on extraterrestrial flight physics"
"simple, you'll need to hold off the fifth angel in case he loses control"
"Oh well, it can't be that hard right?"
Then Shinji asked "what are we going to do first?"
"helping with the ship is a higher priority so we'll do that first, then we'll have a new type of test and finally you'll be free for the rest of the day"
"which means that we'll be back by tonight, right?"
"see Shinji, you're getting smarter"
A face that was telling her 'seriously?' was the answer from the third child.
Then, as Asuka came out of the bathroom she said "oh yeah, I remembered, tonight I'm going out on a date with someone Hikari told me about, actually it was more like begging…
Anyway, can I use your perfume Misato?"
"Heck no"
"Scheibe"
"Now get going Asuka, we'll deploy in an hour"
"Shit!"
Fortress of Doom, command room, five minutes until liftoff
"and there come the Evas" Hayden said and Ramiel replied
"Uh?! Where?!... REEE"
"calm down, they are going to act only if you lose control, right guys?"
Misato, who was inside the ship too, asked and Asuka replied "yeah yeah, let's get this over with"
Then Hayden said "ok, VEGA how's the progress on that limitator?"
"two minutes and it's ready"
"ok, we'll lift off after we secured Ramiel"
"understood, I'll check the various systems in the meantime"
While the robot and the Slayer were setting up the last things Ramiel approached Misato and asked her "can I talk to you?"
Misato didn't reply immediately, but after a bit she said with an angry face "yes"
"I wanted to say that I feel sorry about your father"
This shook the woman, who quickly turned to face the angel and said "you do? But you never met him"
"I know, but they told me that you were pretty angry about it and that you didn't like me being like this, so I just wanted to say my condolences for his death"
"Thank you, but it's not that I don't like you being like this… It's just that I had sworn to avenge my father by killing all the angels, but now with you acting like this…
It's making me feel like I wanted to kill children all this time"
The woman then almost started to cry, but the angel noticed this and so he said "please don't be sad, I don't like it when people are sad, I know that you feel bad about having killed them…
And I do too, but this is a war and I would prefer if your race survived…
Plus, if I have to be honest… I didn't like most of my brothers and sisters anyway, thankfully my favorite ones are still alive…
Let's hope that-"
"Ramiel are you ok? Why did you just stop talking? Ramiel? Are you there?"
"Something is calling me… I need to join them"
"Um… Guys… Ramiel is acting a bit weird"
Then VEGA replied with a concerned voice "oh no, he can't resist them anymore"
Suddenly the angel started to move frantically from one direction to another until he stopped in front of a door and flew right through it.
"What the fuck is happening to him?"
Misato shouted and so the Slayer, who had started chase the angel with her, said "when we landed he came in contact with the energy unit of the ship and he carried a bit of Argent energy around with him.
Now this energy is controlling him and trying to go back to its place of origin"
"Argent energy can do that? What is this thing made of?"
"you don't want to know"
After he said this, both the Slayer and the angel rocketed off, going towards the ship's reactor.
Before Misato could keep following them VEGA told her "it's no use, he's too fast, if you turn to the left there is the Argent limitator in the next room.
Take it, as I believe that it is the only thing that we can use to stop him"
The woman did so and after reaching the room, she saw a black collar with some strange incisions on it floating above a 3d printer.
She took it and resumed her run towards the Slayer and Ramiel.
Reactor room
As the final door was smashed open, Ramiel finally reached his destination and now he only needed to get through the protective layer.
Meanwhile the Slayer had managed to catch up with him, but right before he could get a hold of the angel, it moved upwards and opened itself to fire a laser towards the sturdy metal that had been proven too strong to pass through just by moving.
Suddenly the armor came loose and a group of red lighting hit Ramiel directly and brought him in contact with the source of all Argent energy…
The Demonic Crucible
In that moment, the angel started to scream very loudly because of all the energy and pain that he was feeling.
Then, right as Misato arrived with the collar the screaming stopped and the Slayer said "we're too late"
Outside of the ship
"ugh, what's taking them so long? I'm getting bored here"
And Shinji said "they should be going on a minute Asuka ju-"
He was interrupted by a very loud scream coming from the ship and then, the entirety of the fortresses' external and internal lights turned a deep red.
And so Mari said "um… Is it supposed to do that?"
Then came the reply from Hayden who said "Ramiel has made contact with Argent energy and he has lost control! Right now he has taken a hold of the ship's systems!
The Slayer and Misato are trying to deal with him, but I think that they won't make it in time before"
A deep rumble echoed throughout the geofront and so the robot shouted "GET OUT OF HERE!"
Play:[DESTINY] Evangelion 2.0 ost
Moments later, the gigantic engines of the ship were restarted and so, the futuristic castle lifted itself up in the air, revealing just how big the entire thing was.
It stood at around 250 meters tall with a red bubble shield circumventing it entirely.
The castle in fact was only about one third of the entire structure, the rest of it was made up of rock and Ramiel's mass with various openings for the engine exhaust and various weapons, including lots of missiles and cannons.
As the ship finally exited the hole where it had been laying still for a couple of months, a big portion of the angel's corpse came out from under it and after making contact with the shield, it shattered in various pieces that started to orbit around the spaceship.
Then,it started to move forward towards the pyramid at the centre of the geofront, but it was stopped by unit 01's AT field.
Seeing this Gendo said to the rest of NERV "it seems that his angelic instincts have been awakened again, pilots, engage the threat"
"understood commander" said Rei, who moved unit 00 towards a weapon building that had come out of the ground and grabbed a sniper rifle.
Meanwhile Asuka had put herself next to unit 01 and had begun to push with her AT field too, but it still wasn't enough as the Argent powered engines could erogate a tremendous amount of power so after a while, the two units started sliding backwards because of the extreme force.
To try and slow it down more, Rei and Mari launched a coordinated attack with snipers and rocket launchers, but after their failure, as the shield had just absorbed everything they threw at it, Samuel said "you won't be able to get through the shield, this is even stronger than an AT field.
Our best option is to hold him off until the Slayer and Misato succeed in their operation"
And so the other two pilots joined the group with their units too, this time, starting to push back the flying fortress.
Unfortunately none of them noticed that the flying blue triangles had fused with each other, forming a floating particle cannon.
Which fired as soon as it was in position to push all the four units away from the shield.
Then Hayden said "it's trying to take control of the on board weapons! I'll try to hold him off, but it won't last long!"
Meanwhile, at the reactor
"nothing, not even the destroyer blade gets through this damned Argent shield, plus what are we going to do if we get in? He still has his core hidden and that's where all the energy is coming from" the Slayer said, annoyed that his attempts at reaching the angel had failed, but then VEGA spoke
"I think that I may have figured out a way of surpassing it"
"we're all ears" said Misato holding the back collar in her right hand.
Then VEGA replied "We could use a hidden mode for the unmaykr"
"I didn't know it had one, what does it do?" asked the Slayer, eager to learn more about the powerful weapon and the Ai said "it reverses the effects of the normal firing mode so that instead of shooting out Argent, it is concentrated into a beam that goes from the shield into the weapon, thus lowering the defenses.
Once it has fully charged, it will redirect the energy back to its origin with a powerful shot that should be able to break open the barrier"
But then Misato asked "ok, but how am I going to put this thing inside of him? He is still closed off, maybe the Slayer can force it in?"
"I can't, the demonic nature of that device makes it react when it comes in contact with me, releasing an electric charge, you're the only one who can do this"
The woman immediately got worried when he said 'demonic', but she couldn't think about it much because then VEGA answered her question
"to reveal the core we will use the drive you originally took to carry me to the geofront, it is located in the command room.
We must move quickly, Ramiel is trying to gain control of the weapons and I don't know for how long Samuel will be able to hold him off.
If the angel succeeds then the pilots won't even be able to get close to the ship"
This was all the information that they needed as soon after the Slayer started running towards the unmaykr room;
while Misato was going back up to the main bridge where Samuel was trying to prevent the angel from overtaking everything, but it was easier said than done with the entire ship being shaken left and right constantly.
Ramiel's core
"W-where am I?" Ramiel asked himself when he woke up in a big empty void.
He looked around and after seeing nothing at all he thought "what happened? I was inside the ship a moment ago… Did I die? Did my core fail again while I was talking with Katsuragi?...
Nope, I still feel pretty alive, so what…"
He then tried to reorganize his memories "ok, so I was talking with her, then I hear the same voice as yesterday and then nothing else"
A sudden sound alerted the angel who quickly spun around and got ready to fire.
As he completed the motion, behind him he found a strange object floating nearby.
It looked like a handle for something and it was made of bones and flesh.
It had three skulls on top of it, one at the centre and two at the sides, each one of them with a glowing red gem in the forehead.
Meanwhile in the lower portion there were two metal spikes at the tip and a plain green eye surrounded by flesh right over it.
The corners of the strange object were also covered in bone spikes and metal and there was red lighting flowing over them.
Ramiel's analysis though, was interrupted by a sudden realization.
He was in fact feeling full of energy, in a way that he hadn't been like in a couple of months.
Immediately the angel opened up more to have a better look at his core and he was shocked when he found it completely intact and glowing like it used to do.
"No way! This has to be a dream, my core can't regenerate like that!"
"this is not a dream little one"
"what? W-who's there?"
"over here"
As the angel turned to face the handle once again, he saw that there were three demon-like figures waiting for him and so he got scared, but then the middle one said
"do not fear, we have no intention of hurting you"
Ramiel's shaking slowed down a bit and after a while he asked
"who are you?"
"you may call us the Elemental Wraiths, powerful gods from a forgotten time"
"Oh, ok...where are we?"
"we found that you had an organ which was able to connect us so right now we are inside of it, you referred to it as your 'core'"
"Woah, so you guys fixed it for me? Thanks!"
"you are welcome, now we have a favor to ask you"
"Well I feel like I'm in debt right now so ok, what is it?"
"we need you to walk through this portal, once you do, all of your wildest dreams will come true"
"Really?... I don't know, it seems a bit suspicious"
"then we'll let you have a look and then you can decide what you want to do"
"Okay"
Meanwhile, back into the real world, the Slayer had just returned with the unmaykr and he was waiting at the door for Misato since the breach in the shield was only going to last for a couple of seconds so she needed to be there.
In the meantime though, he was setting up the secondary fire for the Maykr weapon.
"-then you turn the lower handle 90 degrees to the right and pull back"
As VEGA told him the final step, he watched as the front of the gun opened up, revealing a small rotating spike at the centre that was surrounded by the red and white pieces of the breach which were orbiting it.
This was followed by the Slayer's visor displaying a new type of icon as the reticle.
It was a circle with a small square in its centre that was moving around in random directions, until it locked into the shield.
At the same time Misato returned with the collar and the VEGA device in her hands and so the Ai said "good, we are ready.
Now, Slayer, once you activate the weapon, it will start to drain energy from the shield while it charges up a laser shot.
Once that is fired, a hole in the barrier will be opened, but it will only persist for a couple of seconds so Katsuragi you will have to run quickly to the other side.
Then, you will place me on one of Ramiel's sides and I will try to make him open up.
As soon as the core is vulnerable, you put the collar around it,which will activate the device and make him return to normal, understood?"
The woman nodded and got ready to run and so VEGA said "let's begin"
As the Slayer pressed the trigger, a visible stream of Argent energy was created which was charging up the weapon and lowering the shield at the same time.
A couple of seconds later, the weapon was fully charged and so as the Slayer was about to press the trigger once more, VEGA said "Go!"
In a millisecond, a very powerful blast made of all the energy that had been collected was fired from the tip of the weapon and it impacted with the barrier in the same amount of time, destroying it and letting Misato run through moments later.
The woman was now standing in front of Ramiel's body and she was about to place VEGA on it, when suddenly strange and unknown voices started to emanate from the angel, which were very different from his native language.
This made her stop dead in her tracks and as VEGA recognized the voices he thought "shit, they are already trying that on him I need to be quick" "Katsuragi now!"
And then the world became white for him too.
At the same time in Ramiel's core
"So did you like the little peek we let you have?"
"Yes!" shouted the angel, still in ecstasy from viewing that different world and so the creatures continued to say with a grin "Well, you can become a part of it, you just need to cross this portal"
At the same time the Wraiths were thinking in their unified mind "soon we will finally be able to take revenge on the one that has wronged us so long ago… we shall bring death to the holy usurper!"
"I'M NOT DYING ANYTIME SOON"
"How did you get here!?"
"VEGA?"
"DON'T TRUST THEM RAMIEL THEY ARE LYING TO YOU" The Ai said as his powerful voice somehow echoed through the endless void.
"Ah! We were almost there! Be damned usurper!"
And so the three figures returned inside the Demonic Crucible, which had basically become their new prison and with them the portal disappeared too.
"No wait don't go!" Ramiel shouted as he looked at the disappearing portal and the vanishing reality inside of it.
"it was a false reality, don't be sad about it"
"Yes, but still, it was everything I desired"
"it was a trick, the entities you encountered would have just locked you in there while they would have used your body and powers to destroy the outside world"
"What? Wait, what is happening outside?"
"after you fell unconscious, your body flew towards the handle that you saw them come out of.
That is the main source of energy of the ship and when you came in contact with it, it repaired your core and reactivated your regenation factor, freeing once more your angelic instincts"
"Oh no, I didn't hurt anyone did I?"
"No, in fact, something interesting happened.
When you 'reactivated', you started to take control of the ship's systems and right now you are trying to enter central dogma, but the pilots are trying to prevent that.
Unfortunately your other self has managed to take control of the Fortresses' weapons, thus dealing extensive damage to the various units"
"Oh…" he said.
Then he started to cry a little.
Meanwhile, the fortress had strangely stopped moving and attacking, it was simply remaining still with its shield up.
"is everything ok? Why are you crying?" VEGA asked with a worried voice while he manifested his avatar next to the crying angel,who after a while replied "I-i can't do anything right… First I failed at my original goal without even putting up a fight… then I almost killed everyone by considering their offer.
It seems that every time I try to reach my parents I only cause destruction and death" the angel said between sobs
To this VEGA replied "I agree, but it is not your fault"
"W-what?..."
"can you tell me precisely, how was your relationship with your father?"
"he… Was very absent… And when he was there… He didn't care that much about us as he was always angry with mom… Even if sometimes it looked like he wanted to be with her…
Unfortunately, we all were very attached to him and when he left us… Well we felt like there was a void in our souls that couldn't be filled, so we tried everything that we could to simply have him back…
Even if he acted like before…"
"now I understand"
"you understand what?"
"you simply lack guidance… from what you told me your father was not good at being a parent, so now all of you are simply trying to find someone that will teach them how to live happily, right?"
The avatar then placed a hand on one of the angel's sides and immediately Ramiel stopped crying and started to think
"this… Hand… There is a lot of power behind it, even…
OH Adam this is much stronger than what my dad has ever been capable of and… it feels warm…
VEGA has all of this power inside of him and he is using it only to help me feel better… Maybe
Just maybe
If I ask nicely…
Will he accept? I hope so"
"Um, VEGA…"
"Yes?"
"Will you be my new dad?"
Even if he wasn't aware of it, the god's core pulsed with energy as he heard those words, but thankfully it hadn't made any sound, so no one noticed.
To say that VEGA was shocked was an understatement.
In fact, throughout his multi billion years old life, this was the first time he had ever found himself at a loss of words as he thought:
"he didn't just…yes he did… Oh shit oh shit oh-... No
Calm down VEGA, you have been in situations worse than this, after all I have already been a father…
Yeah the shittiest father ever, I still can't comprehend how Hayden still feels attached to me after that conversation…
What am I going to do?
I can see that he desperately needs someone to guide him or else life is going to destroy him, but at the same time am I truly a good choice for that?
No, of course I'm not, I left Hayden to rot in the streets of Urdak right after I created him and I also locked all the freedom that any of my citizen's minds had…
But why did I do that?
Now that I remember… I was… Scared at the time… scared that I would lose them and let my brother win…
And what now?
Well, now I learned that Urdak's population doesn't need me anymore, but they still love me and that even Samuel isn't angry with me… All because…
I tried again…
He will start getting uncomfortable if I make him wait any longer…
So what do I tell him?
Maybe… this… is my chance to restart as a father, with Hayden too and now that I remember, I promised to the Slayer that I would try everything to fix my mistakes, so if I don't keep it I might as well be dead.
He really is that powerful to make me think about death even if I'm immortal…
Anyway time for the truth"
"Ramiel I… would love that"
"Re-re-really?"
"Yes, I might not be the best one, but I'll try"
And then the angel rammed at full force the avatar, which fell to the ground while being hugged by the little blue being's AT field
"Thank you, VEGA, thank you so much, and don't worry, I'll try to be best too"
"about that, right now you are still in control of the ship, but don't worry, you stopped moving.
Anyway, to get you out of here I need you to reveal your core, so that Misato can place that collar I told you about around it"
"Ok, I'll try, but now that my core is working again,there might be an explosion caused by my regenation so she might get hurt"
"don't worry, the Slayer is close to her, he'll know what to do"
"okay, I'm going to open up now"
"Wait one last thing"
"Yes?"
"I didn't tell you to get ready to have Hayden as a brother"
"Wait seriously? Cool! I'll have a second big brother now! Okay I'm opening!"
"wait, another big brother?"
Before VEGA could continue that thought, his vision was filled with black again, but before he returned to the real world, he caught a glimpse of the Demonic Crucible.
This to him meant one thing only, the Wraiths will be back.
Next to the reactor
"he's taking his sweet time" Misato thought, after having stood there for a couple of long minutes, but then suddenly, the USB came off and right after it the red sphere was revealed.
NERV's field captain didn't lose any time and she immediately put the collar on it.
She saw it getting tighter and as it secured itself, the red incisions around it started to glow brighter, but then VEGA said "the core is active again and it's going to explode! Bring it outside!"
And so the Slayer quickly picked up the angel who was starting to get hotter and hotter.
He then turned around and he saw the Atlan's doors open up into the geofront and a couple of robotic arms extending themselves to provide a bar from which he could swing off from.
He figured that it must have been Hayden who had heard VEGA, so he started running towards the ledge and after a big double jump, he swinged off the mechanical arm and then he dashed outside all while he remained in the air thanks to the air control rune that he had always equipped.
Finally, as the blue body started to emit a bright light, he put it in one of his hands and threw it away as far as he could.
He then landed a couple of seconds later into the grass and as he looked up, he saw a bright point of light that was attracting to itself all the blue mass that had been floating around the ship.
Then, in a single instant, all the pieces crashed into the core, creating a very bright explosion.
Which was quickly shut out by the collar's activation leaving only the light coming out.
As this one dissipated too, there was only Ramiel left, who had become much bigger, almost as his original size.
The angel stood still for a moment and then he said "I'm back guys!"
His voice now was definitely louder and a bit lower, but there was still that childish sound to it that accompanied his every word.
"Sorry if I lost control, I just fell unconscious at one point, is everyone ok?"
And then Shinji said "yeah, I think, girls?"
"Fine here"
"I'm alright nya"
"I am not in pain"
"Oh, thank Adam I was so worried"
"who is Adam?" Shinji asked and the angel said "the first angel and my original dad"
"Wait original? What do you mean?"
This time Ramiel was cut off by VEGA who said "I adopted him for the time being"
The reply from Hayden was quick "You did WHAT?!"
"his father has been very absent from his life and right now he's not reachable for what I know, so I figured that I would act as sort of a new dad for him since he needs someone to guide him through life…
Enjoy having a younger brother Samuel"
"you and I seriously need to talk, if I don't break your core first"
"I advise against that"
"you'll never change the way you talk right?"
"I believe not"
"ugh… Ok, as long as he isn't a nuisance I'll be fine with him"
"Yay!" Ramiel said as he became smaller to reenter the fortress.
Meanwhile down at the bottom of the comet, the Slayer was thinking "those celestial idiots really need a lesson about parenting, maybe I'll join their next meeting"
Slowly, but surely, the situation calmed down and everything returned to normal, except for the pilots as they just had time to have lunch at the cafeteria when Misato called them in for their next synch test.
Eva cages
"we're ready Miss Misato"
"good, now that you are all here I'll let Ritsuko explain" she said after reuniting the four pilots at unit 01's cage.
"ok so, today's test will be a new one, that we need to do for a future project, it will be very long as we need to test all the four units, possibly it will take up the entire afternoon"
"What is it about?" asked an annoyed Asuka and the scientist replied "we will be doing cross testing between all of you.
Basically we'll put you in the other units to see how you synch rates behave"
"There's no need to do that, I have already the highest one with my unit 02"
"Yes Asuka, but what if one day unit 02 isn't available for some reason? Plus Shinji has been catching up on you lately-"
"Stop. Ok ok, let's get inside and start doing this"
"entry plugs ready" VEGA said from the speakers and so the four children got ready for the first test.
In this one Mari was going in unit 00, Asuka in unit 01, Shinji in unit 02 and Rei in unit 08.
Unit 01
As Asuka got surrounded by the lcl, she was thinking "agh why did I have to get in the baka's unit first? Plus they put him on mine! Now it's going to smell like him…
Is that really a bad thing?...
God damn it I should be much angrier that they are letting him touch my unit…"
Meanwhile Unit 01 had activated and the soul inside it was eager to listen to the girl that was always present in Shinji's mind.
This soul was also being watched secretly by VEGA.
"I mean unit 02 is the only place where I feel alive… And now he's going to place all of his dirty hands on it… Ugh, oh well let's see how his unit behaves with a Soryu in it"
As the thought finished and Asuka concentrated more, the soul inside could feel her synchronization rate getting higher and her body getting closer to her.
Meanwhile Yui was reflecting on what the girl had thought
"did… Did she say Soryu?"
"exactly, she is Asuka Langley Soryu, daughter of Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu"
"Oh, it's you again, and you did some research, I can't talk to you or the MAGI will find me"
"this connection is secure, I can have complete control of the MAGI in no time so you can talk freely.
But for now I want you to answer a couple of questions, you can keep some secrets if you want, but I don't want to go away empty handed"
"ok, shoot, you angel dad"
"you know that?"
"I can hear what happens around the unit and I was out there so…Why?"
"it might not sound like a very good reason, but it's because I want to try again as a father.
I assume you already know that Samuel is my son"
"yes,I know"
"What you might not know, is that I have been one of the worst fathers ever"
"Oh, I don't… I mean you seem like a good guy, so how?"
"I'll just show you my memories, I can do that in this type of connection, get ready"
"ready for wha-"
And then Yui felt her mind hurt for how much information she was receiving in such a short amount of time.
This was felt by Asuka too, but just as a small tickle on her forehead that she ignored.
She was feeling quite well inside the baka's unit, it was a bit less comfortable, but other than that, she felt warm and relaxed and so, with her mind free she started thinking about what was going to happen that evening.
"Wait VEGA stop, I need to look at Asuka"
"Oh yes, sorry if it hurt"
"It's not like fighting an angel, so it's good, now I understand why you did what you did.
I didn't imagine Ramiel could be such a sweet little thing, it makes some want to crush him into a pulp"
"Sorry what?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, it's just that when you remain trapped inside a murderous beast like unit 01 for so long it starts affecting you a bit, I'm going to listen to Asuka now, I think that Shinji is in unit 02,can you check up on him?"
"only if the soul inside lets me enter, but it feels like it's corrupted, do you know anything about it?"
"No… I heard that something had gone wrong with Kyoko's contact test and that she lost her mind after it, but not much else, in fact I don't even know how unit 02 is working, as an Eva needs a soul in the core to activate"
"souls in the core? Hmmm interesting, I'll leave you now, take care"
"and you take care of Ramiel and Hayden, especially the latter after what you did this morning"
And so the connection was silent (but still active) , leaving Yui to look at what was going on in Asuka's mind.
"oh she has a date tonight, but it's not with Shinji… She isn't happy about it either, even though she is trying to hide it.
Oh wait, she's thinking about leaving the guy… Then spending the rest of the night with Shinji… it looks like a good plan, let's hope that Shinji can play along, I really want to see the two of them together, I think that Kyoko wants it too.
I wonder how he's doing with unit 02"
Unit 02
He was very tense.
Not only because it was a different unit from his own,but also because it smelled like Asuka.
Being already sure that he was going to get beaten just for touching unit 02, he tried to relax himself, seeing as his doom was already set.
As the red unit activated, he felt cold for a moment, but then the warmth that was present in his own entry plug surrounded him once more, but this time, it felt different, like if in his unit was a pool of still water, this one was filled with sparkling water.
He then thought "how can Asuka stay relaxed here? It feels like the LCL is tickling me! Hehe.
Maybe it's just my imagination, but it really smells like her in here…
Yeah it's that new strawberry shampoo that she's using lately to make her hair more beautiful than they already are.
As he thought that, the LCL became sparkler for a moment, but then it calmed down.
"What a shame that she's going out with that guy tonight, I don't really like it anymore to stay alone, not after she entered my life after all.
I hope that the poor soul can resist her for more than twenty minutes, otherwise I'll have to send some condolences to the parents.
Oh well, she wouldn't want to make her unit perform badly so I'll just concentrate for now"
And so the third child too went in a sort of semi asleep state, unaware of the broken soul that was floating near him.
Which was in turn unaware of VEGA, who had finally managed to establish some sort of connection with it, but it only showed what it was feeling.
As the Ai cut the connection to return to Yui he thought "first calm, then panic, calm again, curiosity, fun, embarrassment? Confusion and happiness…
Well, I have to say that Ms Soryu might share your opinion about the pairing of your two children"
The Ai said/thought to Yui, who replied
"yes! If they manage to get together I'll be one of the happiest mothers on earth"
"If you can come out of here… earlier you referred to unit 01 as a 'beast' why is that?"
"Oh, umm… I can't really tell you?"
"is it because the evangelions are copies of the first angel?"
"How did you figure it out?"
"Well let's just say that an arm that regenerates with flesh and bones in a supposedly 'metal' machine, which strangely looks very similar to the first angel during the recovered recording of Second impact does raise some red flags, but would you like to know what sold me the idea?"
"I don't think that you managed to get someone to tell you"
"Well actually yes.
It was when Ramiel started saying that they felt like dad and mom that I connected the all dots… except one…
What happened when the eva went berserk during the first fight?"
"it was me… I couldn't bare to watch my son get killed by Sachiel, so when he fainted, I took control of the unit and unleashed a bit of the brutality that 01 has to offer"
"Now I understand, well, thanks to you the earth is still intact so you can be considered the mother that has saved the world"
"Oh come on, I don't deserve that praise"
Suddenly the speakers turned on and then Ritsuko's voice came out of them saying
"Attention to all personnel, in one minute there will be the activation of unit 00, please clear the area"
"wait, they are testing unit 00 too? Who's piloting it?"
"since this is the first test, it will be Mari Makinami the first's girlfriend"
"Oh, yeah, Ayanami and Mari, I'm not sure how I feel about them"
"Well their relationship is genuine, so I believe that we'll just have to accept it, once they make it public.
After all Gendo is almost always following Rei around so if he became aware of this there would be some consequences.
Also why were you so worried that they were testing her unit?"
"because I too tried to reach out to the other evangelions like you did, but, when I tried with unit 00, I think that I awakened the beast that was sleeping inside of it.
It was during the incident that got Rei hospitalized ,now I believe that if Mari activates unit 00 it will be unleashed again.
Unfortunately I don't think that there is a way we can stop this without revealing our secret"
"No, I believe that there is a way, you see, all the pilots' plug suits have been modified to accommodate the use of two emergency Argent vials.
Based on the dosage they can regenerate almost an entire body instantly, so I believe that we should let them activate the unit, then if things go badly I will activate the system, I'll alert the Slayer just in case too"
"I'm already near the cage" texted the man from his suit and Yui then replied
"Wait how are you connected?"
This time it was Hayden who said "VEGA left his core backdoor open and I detected the signal, don't worry, it's only the four of us here and you secret is safe"
"Oh… thank God, it would be the end of the project if it got leaked"
"get ready now, Mari has just entered the unit" the Slayer said, turning everyone's attention back to the giant blue and white mecha.
Unit 00
Inside the entry plug Makinami was so excited for what was about to come as she thought "Yeees! I'm going to stay in blue's seat for hours! I can already sense her smell in here! Nya!
Ok, so let's get the boring stuff out of the way first.
First stage synchronization, yeah the unit is activating blah blah blah
Now comes the second stage with all the pretty colors, nya!
And finally third stage synchronization!
Wait what is tha-"
And then unit 00 activated.
In the same instant various alarms fired Ritsuko immediately feared for the worst, which was a repeat of the previous activation test, when the unit had tried to kill her.
They had lost all contact with the entry plug and now the blue beast had started moving around, trying to free itself from the restraints.
Eventually the chains and reinforced steel broke loose and the unit started walking towards the command room, with its central red eye as bright as ever.
Quickly everyone in the room started to run for their lives, all except Ritsuko and the commander.
It took Misato shouting at them to bring them out of their trance and once they started running too, a sound which didn't promise anything good was heard.
Misato watched in horror as the neck armor was launched off and the entry plug with it a few seconds later.
She was in fact so frozen that she didn't move when the unit started to punch the reinforced glass, sending shards towards her.
She also didn't see the Slayer bursting through said glass and jumping down towards the entry plug.
Once he was down there, the unit stopped punching and instead it started hitting its head against one of the walls.
Meanwhile the Slayer had reached the entry plug, which was glowing red from the Argent energy that was flowing through it.
With a fast punch, the seal came off and after the LCL finished flowing out, he went to get the girl.
"Mari are you ok?"
"Sl-Slayer? What happened?"
"I'll tell you later, now let me get you out of here"
He then went inside to grab her and when he did, he noticed that she was hot.
In fact her body temperature was in the thousands and for all intents and purposes, Mari should be burning alive right now.
"I guess that Argent really is useful on some occasions" he thought while walking out of the cylinder.
As he looked up, he saw that unit 00 had now stopped moving and that it had caved a pretty big hole in the reinforced wall, just with its head.
He also noticed that the girl was already starting to cool down and that she was becoming more awake.
After climbing back up into the devastated control room, there was already a medical group waiting for him, so he gave her to them.
He knew that thanks to the injection she would be completely fine, but he wanted to be sure anyway.
He then followed them until he met the other three pilots in a corridor, who had come to check up on their friend.
"Don't worry, she's going to be fine" the Slayer said, relaxing the pilots, except for Ayanami, who kept her usual stoic expression even after the good news.
But the Slayer had some very good eyes and he could see that she was just holding back because of the commander who was surely watching her.
Then out of the medical room came Akagi who said "ok, so she's fine, just tired, but her body temperature is unusually high, do you know anything about this?"
This time it was Hayden who replied "It's a side effect of the injection, but it's harmless, what you are measuring is just the temperature of the energy in her body"
"Oh that's good to know, at least it went better than last time"
"Shall we go back to testing?" Rei asked and everyone heard that she had basically forced herself to say those words.
Even VEGA, who had turned off the cameras for a split second, to cover the first child's actions.
"No, Rei… i think that we can stop for today, we got the data that we needed, you may all go home now"
"understood"
And so everyone left the area.
A couple of hours later, around 6 pm
Hayden was at his sitting at his computer when suddenly was called privately by VEGA who said "Ayanami wants to see you at this address, she asked me by communicating with her mind, you should go there"
"I don't have nothing to do except looking out for Ramiel right now… Ok, I'll go, I can leave him to play in the Slayer's room.
Hey Ramiel! I'm going out, you stay in here ok?"
"ok brother"
"Oh yeah we're a family now… we still need to talk about this father"
"he called me father right now, maybe he actually likes the idea?" VEGA thought, but not being able to find an answer.
Moments later the robot left the room with a teleporter that brought him out in the streets of Tokyo 3.
Meanwhile Ramiel had already started to recreate one of his favorite of the Slayer's fights, the one in the super gore nest.
Outskirts of Tokyo 3
"is this the right road? Why would Ayanami want to meet me in such a bad place?
I mean, there are buildings that are about to fall, constant demolition sounds in the back and trash everywhere.
Maybe this is one of the few places in the city that aren't monitored?"
"Hey VEGA? "
"yes?"
"How many cameras or surveillance mechanisms are in this area?"
"the closest one is 3542 meters away and it is currently not working.
I also don't detect any section 2 activity in a range of 3000 meters"
"Hmmm… ok thanks"
And so the robot resumed his walk towards the indicated address.
When he arrived, he found himself on the fourth floor of an old apartment building that looked like it was about to fall apart at any time.
Then finally he reached room 402 and so he pressed the bell next to the door.
Silence
A bit surprised, the robot decided to knock on the door, but as he pressed his metallic hand against it, it opened a bit, meaning that it was unlocked.
So Hayden approached the opening and said "Ayanami, it's me Hayden, they told me you wanted to see me, are you there?
The bell doesn't work… Hello?
I'm coming in Ayanami"
He lowered his head and went in, then he immediately wanted to go back out as the horrid state of the apartment was presented before his eyes.
It was made up of a bedroom and a non existent corridor which led into what was probably a bathroom.
The floor was dirty, the walls grey and ruined and the only visible window was broken into pieces.
He then looked to his right and he saw an old stove and a microwave, with some pans on plates on them and a sink to their left.
Still intrigued to discover more, he went forward into the bedroom and he immediately noticed that the bed looked like something you would find in a prison and it had various blood stains all over it.
The only other pieces of furniture in there were a small table, a chair and a coat hanger with only a school uniform and a full piece swimsuit hanging on it.
Finally as he looked up, he saw the broken light bulb and a metal ring that held various pieces of female panties and bras.
"wait a second… if-"
*SHUSH*
The sound of the hallway door opening stopped Samuel's thought and as the robot turned around, he immediately looked to his left and said "Jeez Ayanami do you have a habit of surprising people while naked?"
"I'm sorry, I was having a shower, I didn't hear you enter"
"yeah well the doorbell of this place doesn't work… Wait, you were having a shower?"
And then Samuel also remembered what she said when she and Mari had come to spend the night at Katsuragi's
"I'm not used to wearing clothes inside my house"
"... Ayanami… Is this where you live?"
"Yes, this is the place that the commander has assigned me"
"my lord are you serious?!
That hallway alone breaks at least seven international hygiene laws and let's not talk about the rest…
Please tell me that this is just a bad joke"
"unfortunately not, I have been living here since we fought the 9th angel, but before I lived in the collapsed building next to this one, in a room that looked the same… can we sit on the bed?"
"uhmm sure…but please put something on"
After Rei dressed up with her school uniform they both sat on the bed and so the girl said "you see Hayden I called you here to…
Ask you some advice on a thing that I should do"
"ok, I'll help, what is it?"
"I am asking you if I should reveal my relationship with Mari to the commander or not"
"Well, the answer to this one isn't easy.
Tell me, what might happen if you revealed it?"
"I think that he would force me to start taking the drugs again so that I would go back to being as obedient as before, because… That's what he is doing"
"What I-, Rei what is he doing to you?"
"today after we went away from looking at Mari, I found him waiting for me at the end of a corridor and when I passed him he…
Took my arm and injected me with something"
she then showed him the exact point where the skin had been penetrated, which was still a bit redder than the rest of the forearm and then she said
"I don't know what it was, but it is very addictive as I have taken almost three vials in just two hours"
"you have more of this?"
"a section 2 agent came earlier and he gave me two full boxes.
They are under the bed, but I can't move them or an alarm will be triggered, that's what he told me"
"Fuck, this is very serious then, do you think that we should inform the others?"
"I-i don't know…I-I-I-I'm scared Hayden"
She then started to cry a little and then she continued
"I don't want to go back to what I was like before…
I hated it,I always felt empty and sad, but then you guys came and then Ikari, with that single interaction, he opened a new world for me.
But especially, I don't want to make Mari sad by taking this stuff…
When we were alone she always kept reminding me to not take any more drugs and if she comes to know this…
It's going to break her heart and I-I-I-, she doesn't deserve to be sad!"
As the girl shouted this, she closed her eyes and hugged Samuel's metal body.
After a bit he hugged her back and then he quietly said "stop worrying, we'll find a way out of this, after all I think that you too deserve happiness, despite what you might think.
Plus, wouldn't Mari want to see you happy too? She always says you have a beautiful smile"
"you are very good at giving hugs Hayden"
"thank you…
Also, I think that there might be someone who we can call to help you, but in the meantime I need to take a look at the substance"
"the next vial will be dispensed in a few minutes, you can make the call now, but to who?"
"the person who knows the most about you"
In an office somewhere at NERV
"hello this is doctor Akagi"
"Akagi it's me Hayden, we need to talk about Ayanami"
"wait Hayden I'm still not ready tell you the truth"
"it's not about what she is, I'm calling you because Gendo is forcing her to take a new really strong drug, you a basically her personal doctor so I need your help"
"but I don't know where you are, plus the commander will surely see me leaving"
"then we'll create a distraction, use that time to reach a portal and put in the coordinates I'm going to send you, but I'm warning you, the sight of the place is not pretty"
He then closed the call and said to VEGA "you think that our robot lady could help us?"
"I'll see…
At NERV
… Yui,can you hear me?"
"VEGA? Yes, what is it?"
"I need you to cause a distraction to your husband, we need Akagi out of NERV as Ayanami's life is in danger right now"
"Oh… ok,let me try something"
And then suddenly a couple of alarms fired as various values that were being monitored in unit 01 went straight through the roof.
Around a minute later Gendo was seen at the control room for the cage and so the Ai told Akagi "Go now!"
The scientist didn't lose any time and after reaching the nearest teleporter, she put in the coordinates and walked through the blue and black portal.
Fortress of Doom, a while earlier
Ramiel had been playing with the toys for a while now and in the meantime the Slayer had been working on the evangelion models, but after a while Ramiel asked "Hey, I'm getting bored, can we go visit Mari at the hospital?"
The Slayer turned to him and said after looking at the clock
"ok, I'm getting bored a bit too, plus it's already 18:15 so they will release her in an half hour , I'm sure that she wouldn't mind a visit"
"Yay! Let's go"
"put the toys back first"
"Oh yeah, ops"
NERV hospital
"ugh, still half an hour before they release me, my god I'm so bored.
I wonder, what could the other guys be doing?
Well, the princess and the puppy are either ignoring and not ignoring each other at the same time, or she is beating him because he was more stubborn or cute than usual.
Now what about Ayanami?
Well, from what she told me she's probably thinking about me in her apartment… while being naked?
Nah that's just my imagination, it would be super weird if someone entered and they just found her roaming around the flat naked"
*knock* *knock* *knock*
"who could it be?"
"come in!"
And then Ramiel burst through the door and landed right next to Mari, hugging her.
He was then followed by the Slayer who said "Thought we could stop by for a visit, do you mind?"
"of course not! Nya! Especially with this cute little thingy"
"I'm not little! I can be 300 meters wide and tall!"
"yeah ok, but now you are little enough for me to do this"
And then she grabbed the little angel and pressed him against her chest.
To this Ramiel said "Slayer help me! She has trapped me between her boobs!"
"Ahahahahah! Come on Mari let him go, I don't want to lose my ears"
"Aww fine, I guess that aunt Mari can't have some fun"
"you're my aunt?" Ramiel asked and the girl replied "no, no, unless VEGA has some secret relative he hasn't told us about"
"I don't have one" said the Ai from the Slayer's suit and then it added
"also, you might want to cover your ears now because we are going to create a distraction to get Akagi out of the building"
"What for?" asked a puzzled Slayer and VEGA replied
"it has been discovered by Hayden that Gendo has been forcing Ayanami to take a new drug since today's incident, so to ensure her safety, we are bringing doctor Akagi to help her, but we need the commander to not be aware of this"
"what are you going to do?"
"something that Ramiel will definitely hear"
"What do yo- aah!"
Then the angel quickly flew under the bed covers and said "unit 01 is shouting a lot"
In the next instant various alarms were activated, which lasted for about a minute before they were turned off once more, meaning that the scientist was now outside of the geofront.
"Well that's sorted now- Hey Mari everything ok?"
"that bastard… she told me she had stopped taking drugs and now that fucking bastard put her back into the loop!"
She shouted flailing her arms in the air because of her anger and then her eyes started to burn and she said while sobbing
"why? Why did he have to do this?
Why is that bastard allowed anywhere near her!"
Then suddenly she felt a heavy hand on her shoulder and as she looked at the Slayer, she saw that hssi face was full of the same anger that she was feeling.
When she also felt Ramiel's at field hugging her head she stopped crying and said "T-Thanks guys"
"we're here for you Mari, don't worry about your girlfriend, I believe that Akagi will know what to do and I think that she can work even with a gun pointed to her head"
"who would do that?"
Outside of Ayanami's room
"Hayden please put that weapon down!"
"I will if you tell me why you knew about this place, but you didn't do anything"
The robot replied while pointing his arm cannon right at her head.
So the scientist replied "I couldn't do anything, it was the commander who dealt with this, I also thought that she had been moved away after the request that was sent by Shinji"
"who sent the request?"
"Shin- oh yeah, now it makes sense.
Look Hayden, right now I can't do anything about it, but I can help her with this new drug if you let me enter"
And so Samuel retracted his weapon and after stepping to the side he said "this way"
As Akagi entered the room, she was visibly disgusted by the condition it was in, but a glare from Hayden made her remember why she was here, so she looked forward and saw Rei and next to her a white syringe with a strange symbol on it which contained a blue liquid that she recognized immediately.
"Oh God, this is worse than I thought"
"hello doctor Akagi, I am ha-a-ppy that you came"
"What do you know about that thing"
"it's a mix of various repressants called x6s, it used to make zoo animals more obedient"
"What animals?"
"a single vial is already a bit too much for something like an elephant and from what I see we need to act quickly or she will be in a state worse than before,maybe even stop talking"
"Shit, what do we do?"
"we need to surround her in lcl, it's proprietes will cancel the serum's effect and heal the damage, but I don't think that we have enough time to-"
"VEGA we need an emergency portal now!"
"understood, it's out of the door"
"emergency portal?"
"It will bring us to the fortress, from there we go to NERV, let's go now"
He said after picking up the almost unconscious girl and running towards the blue portal that was awaiting them outside.
NERV hospital
The Slayer and Ramiel had just finished helping Mari off the bed and now she was able to walk on her own again.
They were about to congratulate her when suddenly a strange sound came from the hallway and as the Slayer went outside to see what was happening, he found Hayden and Akagi running towards him and in between the robot's arms there was a Rei which could be seen from a mile away that she wasn't fine.
When they crossed paths Samuel simply said as he noticed the other two occupants in the room "follow us"
They did, even if Mari was still not readjusted to running, it was her girlfriend's wellbeing on the line so she could endure a bit of pain.
As they reached their destination, Akagi pointed towards the corner of a room that they had just entered and in there there was a glass tube connected to an LCL container.
Both Hayden and the Slayer decided that they would leave the question of the machine's existence for later, as they were lowering the now unconscious girl into the cylinder which, once closed, was filled with LCL.
Finally Ritsuko finished activating the system and so the group relaxed, now that they were out of danger the Slayer asked while looking at Mari who had lowered herself over the glass
"what happened to her?"
"the drug that Gnedo forced on her" began the scientist "was a heavy animal tranquilizer, used to make zoo animals more obedient.
Unfortunately it is also very addictive for humans and so after the first injection she wasn't able to resist taking a lot more, which proved almost fatal.
Thankfully now she is safe, by tomorrow the LCL will have removed any trace of the drug from her system"
"Oh thank god" said a very tense Mari, who couldn't stop looking at her girlfriend and the weird machine they had put her in.
"What is that tube anyway?"
"It has to do with what Rei actually is, you see to keep remaining healthy, she needs to take a bath of LCL every couple days or so or her immune system will become too weak to actually defend her from anything.
So every week she comes here and I make her take a bath for a couple hours"
"Oh, so that's why she was always busy on Saturdays" said Mari
"can I take a look at this LCL?
I think that I have seen it somewhere else"
Asked Ramiel and when Ritsuko nodded, he floated above the tank and slowly lowered himself until he came in contact with the liquid.
In a microsecond he felt an electrical charge passing through his body and then he started seeing lots of things at random, places, people, location, the color red, a big red room, a big red room with something big in it, a big red room with a big red cross, with LCL under it and then impaled on that cross-
"REEEE!"
The angel shouted and immediately flew away from the liquid.
After noticing that the others were looking at him funny he said
"I remember now, this, liquid…
It comes from mom, she was always producing it in some sort of way.
I think that I connected with Ayanami for a bit there and I swear, I think that I saw my mom impaled on a big red cross in a dark room, do you guys know anything about it?"
The Slayer, VEGA and Hayden remained silent, while Mari and Ritsuko nodded horizontally, the latter having clear tension on her face.
Suddenly a knock on the door was heard and the Slayer quickly rose from his seat and opened the door.
On the other side there was Fuyutsuki waiting for him and once he saw the elder he asked "Ah sub-commander, what brings you here?"
"Well I was nearby and I heard a lot of screaming and movement so I wanted to check and-"
he then peeked into the room enough for him to spot Rei inside the tube so he asked
"it's not Saturday today, is it?... What happened?"
The Slayer replied "the commander forced her to take an almost lethal drug to have her return to her previous emotional state, but we managed to save her…
I'm going to ask nicely since you seem a nice person sub-commander, did you know about this?"
"I had only seen the receipt for the substance you are talking about, but I there was no information on what they were going to use it for"
"thank you, now, do you happen to know…
Where is he?"
The change in tone made everyone understand what the Slayer had in mind so Samuel quickly said "hold on, I don't think that you should kill him without letting him give an explanation"
"No excuse is viable for what he has done today, but ok, I won't kill him, I'll just leave a message.
Instead Hayden, why don't you finish testing out the weapons of the ship on the outskirts of Tokyo 3?"
"you have seen her apartment?"
"VEGA has shown me some photos, Mari saw them too, now Fuyutsuki, the commander?"
"he-he is in a meeting right now"
"thanks.
Now VEGA can you ping me the path to the meeting room?"
"done"
"Well, see you in a while, take the ship out for a ride will you Hayden?"
And so the two of them left the room, followed then by Ramiel.
"I am still impressed by just how much power they have over us" said the elder and to this Mari replied
"Well at least they use it for doing good things, like punishing someone for assaulting my girlfriend"
"Mari shouldn't you still be in your hospital bed?"
"Oh come on it's fine, I can walk easily without any incident-ow!"
She said after falling to the ground and as Fuyutsuki helped her Akagi said "yeah, no, especially after running all the way here.
You need to go back into your bed until at least tomorrow"
"I'm not leaving Rei alone!"
"we could move you here so that you can stay together, how does that sound?"
"Fantastic! Thank you"
"sometimes this girl makes me smile too"
Thought the sub-commander while he was exiting the room.
Meeting room
Gendo was in the middle of talking with various world leaders and powerful people, all of them being the secret members of SEELE, about the state of NERV and of the ongoing war.
"and so that's why-" the commander suddenly got interrupted by a phone call and so he said to the others "excuse for a moment" and so he picked up the phone and on the other side there was…
A noise of someone walking.
"hello? Is anyone there?"
As he said this, the noise got louder, in fact it was loud enough for the other members of the meeting to hear as well.
Then, right before Gendo was about to put the phone away, a new noise of metal hitting against metal was heard and then a voice…
"you did a very bad decision today by using that new drug Gendo"
It was the Slayer's voice, deep and filled with enough anger to make the entire council react in fear, but before any of them could do something, the call dropped and there was about an instant of total silence…
Before the door was blown open by a rocket and the Slayer jumped through the smoke, landing right behind NERV's commander.
Gendo didn't have time to move as he was soon pinned to the table with the Doom blade pointed right at his face and a heavy glove keeping him still by the neck.
Then, with deadly precision, the Slayer left a pretty mean cut on one of his cheeks and then one near his shoulder and some smaller ones in the rest of the body.
They weren't serious cuts at all, but as the Slayer said later "this is strike one Gendo, you don't want to see the others"
He then moved off the table and said, after letting him go "I'm not done yet, you see, me and Hayden believe that Ayanami's building needed some 'restoration' so we are going to do it free of charge.
Show him VEGA"
And then a new screen was opened on the wall, with everyone in the room turning to look at it, even the holograms of the politicians and SEELE members,who were still being ignored completely.
The video feed was coming from a camera on a street and it was pointed towards the fortress of doom, which was floating right above the district where Ayanami and only Ayanami lived.
"put on the lights show Hayden"
Suddenly, all kinds of weapons were deployed by the flying ship, which started firing towards all the nearly destroyed buildings.
In fact, not even a minute later there was only rubble and debris left.
"Now I'll let you finish your stupid meeting, au revior, bastard king"
And so he left the room.
TO BE CONTINUED-