Chapter 32

Shinji awakened some time later. The first thing he was aware of was a massive headache that made him feel like his skull was cracking open. The next thing he realized was that he was chained to a heavy, metal chair in a darkened room with a beam of light shining down on him. It was impossible for him to see the rest of the room around him.

"It has awakened," came a voice from out of the darkness.

"Satisfactory," said another voice, deeper than the first one.

"This is the beast that has sought us for months?" mocked a third voice. Shinji could discern at least seven other voices all muttering and laughing outside his field of view.

"Who are you?!" Shinji demanded weakly. His strength was still depleted. He couldn't even hear Azrael's voice in his head.

"Who do you think we are, werewolf scum?" asked the second voice.

"You're…the High Council?" Shinji realized, "So…almost face-to-face at last. Took you long enough to find me."

"Do not delude yourself, werewolf scum," said the man, "We have been tracking you for nearly the amount of time that you have been searching for us. We have tracked down where you live, who you live with, and the names of most of your associates. What we cannot fathom is why a werewolf has been seeking out an Order that is sworn to the eradication of their kind."

"Maybe I was just curious," Shinji said rebelliously.

"Rokubungi," the man said, "Continue with your tests."

"Where's Misa—," Shinji started to ask. Suddenly, a massive electrical shock surged through the metal chair and Shinji's body.

"EEEAAAAARRRGGHHH!!" Shinji screamed in agony, "WHAT—THE—FUCK—DO—YOU—WANT?!"

The Council members all laughed as Shinji continued to squirm painfully in the lightning-chair.

"What do we want?!" the man who had spoken before asked disdainfully, "What we, the Council of Moonwatchers, are sworn to do is to rid the world of your monstrous race once, and for all. What do we want?! We…want…purity!"

The current was stopped to Shinji's chair. Shinji slumped hard against his chains, breathing unevenly.

Okay… he thought, Now I'm worried…I've no way of contacting Angel or anyone else. I'm too weak to break free, and they're going to torture me and kill me! Dear God in heaven…someone please help me!

"Again!" rang out the lead Councilman's voice.

Shinji screamed anew as a fresh jolt ripped through his tired form. Shinji wished that he would just die and have done with the agony. Every particle of his being begged for death, yet the pale horseman would not embrace him.

"Enough!" came a powerful voice from outside the ring of light. It didn't belong to any one of the Council's members. There was a clattering sound, and then the electricity abated again.

"Who dares?!" demanded the lead Councilman.

"We dare, you manky gits!" came a drawling British accent.

It can't be… Shinji thought, hardly daring to hope.

"G-guys?" Shinji gasped weakly.

"Hang on, mate," called Spike, "Here comes the bloody cavalry!"

Shinji heard the whistling sound of knives being thrown and screams as they reached their fleshy targets. Rei and Team Angel dropped into the center of the room and formed a defensive ring around Shinji.

"Guards!" screamed the leader, "Eliminate them! At once!"

"I'm guessin' this was plan 'B', then!" Spike said excitedly.

"Plan 'B': Kill 'em all," Shinji confirmed.

Heavily armed tactical troops charged into the room by the dozen. Shinji's body was producing adrenaline by the gallon to try and compensate for his lack of strength. Shinji wasn't sure which buzzing in his head was the worst; the leftover pain from the tranquilizer, the electrical surge that was still making his muscles twitch, or the epinephrine rush that was making his heart race. He decided on something. Chains might be fine for "gangstas", but they weren't for him. Shinji tried as hard as he could to hear the wolf's call within him.

"Raise the current on that chair as high as it will go!" the leader shouted, "Fry that damned creature!"

Shinji smiled wolfishly. He had finally heard the song of the night and could feel his humanity slipping away. His body became so large that the chains began to creak and groan as they tried to keep him restrained. Shinji flexed his enormous chest, and the chains broke away, rattling to the floor.

"Uh-oh," Angel said loudly in a childish sing-songy voice, "I think someone's angry…"

Shinji roared and picked up a length of chain. Swinging it over his head like a flail, he threw himself over the top of his ring of defenders and landed in the middle of one of the tactical teams.

"Attack!" yelled Angel.

"Kill them all!" screamed the leader of the Council, "Come, gentlemen, we must escape this place!"

Shinji could hear the other Council members running from the room. He could track them all down later and kill them. He promised that to himself. Shinji slashed and smashed at every soldier within his reach. At one point, Shinji had one troop impaled through the chest on one of his talons while he bit into the throat of a second one and swung his chain so hard that it snapped a third troop's head clean off! His bloodlust was in full rancor, driving him onward, making him wild and ruthless. By himself, Shinji slaughtered nearly three dozen of the almost one hundred soldiers that had been summoned to kill him. One man's blood was still absent from the large pool that stained the floor, however.

"Rokubungiiii!" Shinji bellowed.

I just spoke! Shinji realized, That's…weird…aw, who cares? I want that bastard's blood!

"Angel," Azrael growled, "I'm going after Rokubungi. Find Misato."

"Count on it," Angel replied, "Good hunting."

"I like how the kid thinks!" Spike shouted over the din of the melee.

Azrael charged out of the room and into a long hallway. He could smell that filthy son of a bitch's trail easily. It stood out like the smell of decaying flesh amongst a field of lilies. He followed the smell up a long flight of stairs to the roof of the building. Once there, Shinji realized that he had been removed from the warehouse after he had been knocked out. Shinji saw a helipad and on it, a helicopter preparing for take-off. Preparing to climb into the helicopter was his quarry.

"Rokubungi!" Azrael bellowed.

"No!" the man gasped, turning to face his pursuer, "It's not possible! NO!"

Azrael crossed the rooftop in a single, flying leap and dragged the man away from the chopper. He grabbed the trench-coated man by the leg and flung him into a large, air-conditioner unit. The chopper pilot, seeing this rampaging beast on the roof next to him, panicked and took off. Shinji wanted nothing more than to pounce on his offender and rip out his jugular, but that would have been too easy.

He doesn't deserve to die quickly like that, Shinji thought, enraged with the need for vengeance, No…oh, no…his death's gonna slow, and oh, so painful!

Shinji strode over to where the man lay. Shinji smelled him carefully. He was lying too still to be unconscious. Just as Shinji was thinking that it might be a trap, Rokubungi produced a tranquilizer-gun and pulled the trigger. Shinji's reflexes, which had been heightened by his adrenaline rush, made time seem to move slower; so much slower, in fact, that he reached out, and caught the small, flying dart by its tail feathers and flung it back into the neck of its shooter. The shocked man clutched at his neck, gagging and gasping for air. He stumbled backwards, finally catching his shoe on the edge of the roof and plummeting over. Shinji heard a shrill scream as he fell, and then a dull "thump!" as the body hit the pavement below. Shinji smiled with satisfaction as he returned to his human form.

"It's over," Shinji said to the empty roof as he turned back towards the stairwell.

"It's not," came a raspy voice from behind Shinji.

Shinji turned around fast and saw Rokubungi climbing back over the top of the roof.

"That's impossible," Shinji said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Not for me," the being answered, "Gendo Rokubungi cannot be killed."

"That name," Shinji realized with wonder, "Gendo…"

"Yes, boy," said Rokubungi, "You are my son; my own, misbegotten flesh and blood. Had I known what your mother was, I would never have married her in the first place!"

"What she was?" Shinji repeated, mind still numb with shock.

"You said you've been searching for the answers to your sordid past?" Rokubungi asked, "Let me inform you, boy. Your mother's bloodline is where you get your polluted werewolf birth. That's why I killed her, you see. I was already a member of the glorious Council, and sworn to kill any werewolf that I came across. After you were born, she told me what she was, concerned that you might have inherited her curse. That night, while she slept, I crept upon her and slit her throat, and then stabbed a silver knife right into her monstrous heart!"

The evil man laughed maniacally. Then, he continued:

"Once I knew what your mother was, boy, I then decided to destroy her bastard offspring. However, you displayed no signs that you shared her blood. Therefore, you lived through your infancy. However, you were still her child, and not one that I wanted to raise, so I gave you away."

Angry, spiteful tears were beginning to form in Shinji's eyes. The crazed man still had more to say:

"Despite not wishing to ever see your face again for as long as I lived, the Council decreed that I was to follow you until manhood to see if you started to display signs of the disease."

"I'm not a disease!" Shinji shouted, "You are!"

"Reluctantly, I obeyed their orders," Gendo continued, ignoring Shinji's outburst, "I followed you from town to town, house to house, life to life, for eighteen long years. Until, finally, you came here to Los Angeles for your eighteenth year. I should have known what was to come to pass when the moon was waxing full on the nights leading up to your birthday. But then, that meddler Kaji found you and tried to kill you. I knew that the Council intended for me to kill you myself, so I flung the same silver knife I had used to slit your bitch of a mother's throat into that monster's black heart!"

"It was you!" Shinji gasped, "That's what Kaji meant as he was dying! He must have seen you or smelled you or…"

"Oh, yes, he saw me," said Gendo, "But he saw me only after I stuck the knife in his heart. After you all rushed off to tend to his other victim, I collected the body for destruction and my knife for cleaning. Oh, yes, we planned everything, the Council and I, except for your sabbatical to Europe. Our Romanian branch was ordered to capture you for transport back here to L.A. Of course, you had to resist and become obstinate. How is your back, by the way, son? Still scarred?"

"Enough talk," Shinji snarled, tears now pouring down his face, "Unless you want to answer me this one question: Where's Misato?"

"By now, she's back in her nice, cozy little house, thinking that all this was a bad dream," Gendo answered, "We only kidnapped her to facilitate your going to that warehouse. We planted that address with each of the troops that we sent to your house, hoping that you'd do the expected thing and interrogate one of them for our location. I must say, you're easier to manipulate than I thought you would be."

Shinji roared and gave over to Azrael. He threw himself at his father, blind hatred burning in the pit of his stomach. His massive inertia drove the two men over the side of the building and down, ten stories, to the pavement below. Shinji made sure that his father hit the pavement first and gave him something soft and fleshy to land on. Shinji punched and clawed at the deranged man, fully intent on inflicting as much bodily pain as he was able to.

Shinji was surprised when Gendo struck back, catching him under his chin with a fist; a fist that felt like solid steel. Shinji was sent sprawling backwards onto the pavement, but he recovered quickly and got to his feet. Gendo was now also standing up again, with barely a scratch on him.

"How did you survive two falls?" Azrael demanded.

"I am immortal," his father replied with an insane grin. He tore open his shirt and revealed an arcane-looking symbol tattooed on his chest.

"So long as this rune adorns my flesh, I cannot be killed," Gendo said triumphantly.

I've got a solution for that, Shinji thought viciously.

"The rune also gives me the physical might to match your own, so that I may eradicate you with my own, bare hands!" the insane man howled, leaping at Shinji.

Shinji saw him coming and dodged to one side. The two combatants stalked and circled each other slowly; each looking for an opening or weakness to exploit. Shinji heard running footfalls approaching.

"Shinji!"

"Stay out of this, Rei," Shinji called back, not daring to take his eyes off of his father.

"But I—,"

"Leave it," Shinji heard Angel say, "This is something that has to be handled between father and son."

"Give it to 'im!" Spike yelled, "Ream him a new arse, Shinji!"

Shinji grinned evilly at his bastard father.

"Come and get me…son," Gendo growled tauntingly.

"With pleasure," Shinji replied. Then, he roared and charged his father. Unfortunately, this played right into the older man's hands. Gendo caught Shinji by the arms and threw him up and through one of the building's windows.

Stupid! Shinji berated himself, You did just what he wanted, and now you're on the defensive!

Shinji rolled back to his feet and waited. Sure enough, moments later, Gendo came leaping back through the window and aimed for Shinji. He unsheathed a silver knife from his belt and advanced towards his son. Shinji eyed the knife with a mix of dread, uncertainty, and anger.

The knife that murdered mom, he thought, Now he's going to try and kill me with it. Not today, damn it!

Gendo slashed at Shinji with his knife, drawing blood from his forearm. Shinji roared with pain as the silver made his skin burn. Gendo laughed and stabbed at Shinji, aiming for his torso. Shinji was ready for him this time and rolled off to one side, avoiding the blade. Shinji sliced at Gendo with his talons, drawing a large gout of blood from the man's shoulder and causing him to roar with pain. The fight passed through several rooms until it lead back to the room with the metal chair. Shinji realized where the Council had taken him.

We're in the old, abandoned hospital building on East Boulevard, Shinji thought, This must be one of the old theatre rooms.

"Prepare to die, son," Gendo roared. He whipped the knife at Shinji, aiming for his heart.

"You first," Shinji growled, catching the weapon. He tackled his father and used the knife to slash off the skin from his chest.

"No more tattoo," said Shinji, "No more strength. No more immortality."

Gendo was paralyzed with pain. Shinji dragged him over to the metal chair and threw him into it. Then, he took the remains of the chains and bound his hated father to the chair. Without his tattoo, Gendo did not have the strength with which to free himself. Shinji looked around, trying to find the switch.

There it is, on the top level, Shinji thought, nodding to himself.

"The—Council will be around for longer than you will!" Gendo said haltingly, "We…are eternal. Sooner or later, one of us will hunt you down!"

"Maybe," said Azrael, "But not you, and not today. Good-bye, father. I'll see you in hell."

As Shinji reached for the switch, he heard Gendo mumble:

"Forgive me, Shinji…"

Shinji pulled the switch and activated the chair. There was a massive crackling sound as enough electricity to cook an elephant flooded the chair. In a matter of a few moments, Shinji's father's corpse was naught but a charred, smoking husk. He shut off the current jumped back down to the theatre floor, returned to his human form and looked down at the burned remains of his father.

"I forgive you…father."