Blood Red
Episode 2
New Horizons
A/N: HI there, lately it has been a constant back and forth between me and the school and let me tell you that boxing ring bell doesn't want to ring ahah. Anyway just a quick disclaimer, in two chapters (probably idk) Episode 2 is going to end and I really can't wait to start episode 3 as I'm full of ideas for it.
Still that can wait, for now have a good read!
Chapter 10: The Plan
John's house
"Please take seat, I am started preparing some coffen for us. Do you want sugar in it?"
The Slayer nodded as looked at the green couch next to him, but before sitting down he heard John moving into the kitchen, where he decided to follow him to help.
But as soon as he made a step towards him the man said:
"Ah nein! Don't worry, I do myself. Sorry for german accent, but mother was German. Do you speak American?"
The Slayer nodded and so he continued in the other language:
"Ah great, sorry for that, but my Japanese isn't the best and the German accent only makes it worse. Anyway as I said, don't worry, I've gotten pretty good at this over the years."
So the man simply stood there, while Rami jumped off of him and landed right on the couch, curious to discover what it was.
And while he was waiting, the Slayer decided to look around the house to try to understand him a bit better.
He immediately noticed the various animal heads that had been hung up on the wall, while in a large glass in the middle of them there was a large high caliber sniper rifle.
Apart from that, there wasn't much else to be noticed in there, just the normal couch and an old TV that wasn't connected to anything.
There was also a red carpet in the centre of the room, where a wooden and glass table stood with some newspapers on top of it.
Finally in the bottom right corner of the room, there was a portrait on top of a pedestal which showed him with a combat medic attire while standing next to various other soldiers.
"Ah those were the good times, no second impact, no evangelions, just my comrades and Afghans to shoot." John said as he came back with two cups of coffee.
He placed them on the table, which got Rami interested so he jumped on top of it.
"Hey watch out!"
John shouted as the Slayer turned around and picked him up before sitting back on the couch.
And as John began drinking, he took it as an opportunity to examine his face.
It was quite large, but devoid of facial hair with a pair of plain circular glasses sitting on top of his nose. His hair was short and blonde, with a couple of grey trails here and there, which showed his increasing age.
He looked down at the rest of his body while taking the cup himself to not arouse suspicion and noticed that he seemed pretty fit for a paralized man, but he wasn't alien to the concept so it didn't bother him.
He was wearing a green and Red checkered long sleeved shirt, with a pair of black trousers that covered his legs.
He looked back at his face, noticing how one of his eyes was differently colored from the other one. The left one was blue, the other green.
Suddenly though the man asked: "Is the coffee not of your liking?"
So the Slayer removed his helmet and the two of them switched roles, with John taking a look at him as he drank the beverage. All this while Rami tried climbing into the Slayer's helmet, finding that it was almost a perfect fit for his oversized brain.
Once he was done, the Slayer gave a thumbs up as he put on his helmet again.
"Right, I forgot that you didn't talk too much.
Anyway you're probably wondering why I asked you to come here right?"
The Slayer nodded as he crossed his arms, so John continued:
"You see I've always kind of hated this entire place, their way of living, how they consider themselves as a small heaven on Earth…
Unfortunately I'm stuck here due to my condition and this is the only place I can afford.
Over the years however, I've been secretly contacted by what remains of the government of the United States in their efforts to rebuild a national army that didn't rely on WILLE.
I know that you must have put your trust in them given how fiercely you protected the pilots a couple of days ago, but people are different, and after that last impact, very disappointed too.
The president has therefore decided to reform his own army and has called me thanks to the years of experience I have as an Afghan veteran. What I'm simply asking you to do is to bring me to the plane that will arrive for me soon.
I can't get someone else to do it since leaving the village is basically seen as a sin and I can't even get there by car for…
Obvious reasons.
Anyway, that's my request. I've also prepared a very important reward which I believe will help you out on your journey very much. A detailed digital map of almost the entire world.
It's hidden in a particular place here in the village and only I know where it is, but I'll let you in only when I get to the plane. I've made a promise to the one who gave it to me. The choice is yours Mr. Slayer, I'll leave you some time to think, if you agree, come back tomorrow at this same hour."
The Slayer nodded as he politely saluted the man and got up.
John followed him up until the door and once both the Slayer and Rami were outside, he said:
"It was a pleasure to meet both of you. I hope to see you tomorrow!"
The Slayer waved goodbye to him and walked back into the forest, he then noticed that there were still some hours left before Shinji woke up, so he decided to try and find out where that trail in the mud came from.
Unfortunately upon his arrival, he found that some animals had walked all over it, turning it into just another average pile of mud.
So, unsure of how to proceed, he looked at Rami who was walking next to him for now and so he got an idea.
He snapped his fingers to get Rami's attention, then made a motion to have him follow him.
A while later, Mark 05 crash site
As soon as Rami recognized the area, he rejoiced and jumped off the Slayer's head, rushing into the humanoid pit.
As the Slayer looked at him, he noticed the unusual silence that there was inside his helmet. Usually VEGA would say something, like if a scanner was being activated or other things, or maybe Samuel would try (and fail) to insult the Slayer, but this time both of them were silent.
He tried checking the connection, finding that VEGA's was erratic to levels that even hell couldn't produce. This meant that at the moment he had no way of contacting them.
He began to grow worried, until he heard Rami shout:
"Taka! Taka!"
Letting out a sigh he looked again at the connection, noticing how it was slowly getting more and more stable. So, after wishing for everything to go well, he jumped into the hole to see what Rami had found.
It was a small metallic tube which he was having difficulties bringing out of the ground, so the Slayer walked over and grabbed it for him.
It was much longer than what it seemed on the outside and it wasn't small either, being around ten centimeters wide.
The Slayer turned it around and was suddenly med with a dirty anti aircraft missile stuck in the tube.
"What the hell is such a weapon doing on the corpse of an evangelion? I thought that they were used in the first place because traditional weapons were ineffective against angels.
Angels…
Right! This comes from a unit which wasn't designed to fight against supernatural enemies, so I guess that having some air defenses makes sense.
Hold on, what's that purple thing near the missile?"
The Slayer moved a hand into the tube to get what looked like a piece of rock which was stopping the missile from sliding out.
His arm was too big however and just as he was about to grab it, his arm crushed the missile into the side of the tube, making it explode right on him.
He was thrown back by the explosion which sent some birds flying and Rami transformed into his rock form in fear, but, other than a bit of dust onto his visor, the Slayer was relatively unscathed.
Unfortunately his suit had gotten all dirty with dust and since it didn't go away like demon blood after a while, he got up to find some water so that he could stop smelling like grilled meat.
Rami followed him soon after and since he knew these forests very well, they quickly found a nearby torrent which was deep enough in one place for the Slayer to jump in.
Once he was in the water in his full suit, Rami followed him in, having had his own experiences with it some other times as well.
The man dived to wash his helmet too, but Rami got scared, thinking that he was drowning, so his brain began to unconsciously produce more and more electricity.
Meanwhile underwater, the Slayer was moving around, having gotten curious to see what was on the bed and suddenly he found a trout hiding behind a rock.
Just as he was about to grab it though, Rami unknowingly let out a large electrical current through the pond, which hit the Slayer immediately.
He was used to electricity going through him, however this time images began flashing before his eyes, along with voices that he thought he had forgotten.
" 'Look at this fish daddy! There's a stingray too!'
'Honey watch ou-'"
"AAARGH-"
Fortress of Doom
Samuel was suddenly interrupted in his observation of VEGA as all the Argent energy sensors sent error messages all across his screen.
"What the hell?! Wait, don't tell me that he's having another event!" Samuel shouted to no one as the connection with the Wunder had gone silent a while before.
He opened up the map and as he locked into the village, he found an enormous spike in both Argent and area temperature, along with magnetic fields, radiation and luminosity too.
He quickly pointed the cameras to the area, just as the blinding light disappeared.
What he saw there was that a piece of forest had been completely vaporized, so quickly that it hadn't even started a fire.
In the middle he also saw a pond with water no longer in it, but instead the glowing figure of the Slayer, who slowly walked out into the burnt grass and collapsed to the ground.
After a while, Rami emerged from a nearby rock as he got closer to the Slayer while trying to wake him up.
And just like the man did, Samuel collapsed into his chair as he tried to make sense of what had just happened.
He sat there in silence for several seconds before he noticed VEGA connecting once more to the ship.
And as the realization finally struck him, he let out a laugh as he thought:
"At this rate, Davoth is going to be at our front door by tomorrow night."
A couple of minutes later, at the pond.
"Slayer? Can you hear me? It's me VEGA, you seem to have fallen unconscious for a while."
The sudden robotic voice brought him back to his senses and as his vision returned, he found VEGA flying over him, with a joyful Ayanami playing around with Rami near them.
It was only when he got up again that he saw what had happened and as he looked around, VEGA said:
"You have released enormous amounts of Argent which vaporized almost everything in this area. Me and Samuel are still not sure what caused this, do you remember anything?"
The Slayer stood silent as his body suddenly got more tense.
"Was it about them-" VEGA stopped his sentence once he saw the two large circular barrels pointing right at him.
"I'll take it as a yes."
Suddenly a deep and powerful roar was heard echoing through the valley, making everything stop for a moment except for Rami, who began shouting:
"Mama! Mama!"
He looked at the Slayer and waved him goodbye before saying:
"Taka-morrow! Taka-morrow!"
With that he jumped into the woods and disappeared. Rei and the Slayer tried going after him, but then VEGA said:
"Don't worry, he'll be back. Moreover it's better if we go back to Kensuke's house, he must have brought back lunch by now."
They both looked at each other and nodded.
Kensuke's house
As the trio entered, they found Asuka and Kensuke waiting for them at the table, with the girl playing on her Wonderswan as she sat in what looked like the least comfortable position ever conceived.
Still, it was lunchtime so she put it away and turned to eat, but as she saw the Slayer grab the plate that they had prepared for Shinji she suddenly said:
"Wa- ait!" He turned towards her as she continued:
"He might have woken up already, let me bring it to him."
The Slayer didn't see a problem with that so he handed her the plate and sat back down.
He watched Asuka walk nervously towards his door, her hand almost shaking for a moment when she opened it.
"Oh God… What the hell did I do to him?" Asuka thought as she saw the boy's body on the bed.
He was asleep, or unconscious, she couldn't tell and even if only a couple of hours had passed, she saw the enormous wet areas of the bed around his head.
His free hand was full of bruises, but none of the other ropes that held him were damaged, so he was probably trying to get away from one of Kaworu's attacks, trying anything with all that he had.
She then noticed a small open cut on his palm and knowing that his bed wasn't the most sanitized of places, she put the trail on the nightstand and opened the lower drawer.
She thanked her past self from leaving these few medical supplies in here as she grabbed some oxygenated water and a small band-aid.
After dropping some of the liquid on the wound, she heard him make sounds of annoyance, but he remained asleep.
It was only once he felt the warmth of her hand in his that he finally regained some senses, yet Asuka didn't notice him.
"His hand feels… Nice to touch." She thought as she carefully placed the band-aid on the wound.
Asuka then grabbed his hand to apply the necessary pressure to make it stick, but just as she moved it back down, her single blue eye locked with his dark blue ones surrounded by red veins.
They looked at each other for an infinite second, until Shinji tried moving a hand towards the trail and said something, but his voice was too weak to understand.
When he moved his index finger, Asuka noticed that he was pointing at the water bottle near her so, without thinking, she opened it and gave it to him.
He quickly moved it to his mouth and began drinking it like a maniac, emptying the half a litre bottle at lightning speed.
And just as he moved it away from his lips, he heard a loud *thud* as the wooden door was shut close. Looking around himself, he noticed that Asuka was gone.
He looked down at his free hand once more and if he focused on the small band-aid enough, he could feel the warmth of her hand again.
"Didn't she… Hate me?"
"Yes, she does, honestly she's probably just surprised that you didn't ruin it more given how much your nightmares made you trash around.
I'm sorry that I wasn't there, I was… Out of energy."
"No it's okay, I understand… It's just that they said that I shouldn't have had nightmares with those sedatives."
"They probably ran out early. It's not important now, it's better if you eat something since they still bother to bring you food."
"Okay."
And with that, Shinji grabbed the protein bars and slowly began to eat, with Kaworu thankful that he couldn't see the nervous sweat on his head.
Asuka's entry plug, a while after
VEGA was floating near the hatch of the closed entry plug, having just arrived after Asuka ran past them during lunch.
The others were checking up on Shinji, so it was only him over the large metallic tube.
He approached the opening lever, but just as he was about to pull it, he began hearing something coming from the inside of the plug, so he got closer and listened.
"You have to stop thinking like that, Asuka. You were made to save people! It doesn't matter how you do it.
Simply trying is important."
"I wish that the things you told me were true Asuka… I really do.
But everyone just sees me as a weapon nowadays. I was made to kill angels, not for helping others."
"Hold on, she was made? By who- how? Also who is she talking to? I've heard her name twice."
"That's not true, for example Misato doesn't see you as a weapon."
"Pfft yeah when I'm not on a mission. Otherwise she's just too busy with her own shit to care about me."
"I'm sure that a bit she does like you. And by the way, what about Mari? We both know how good friends you two have become."
Asuka looked away as she reluctantly said:
"Fine, I guess that you're just a little bit right about that."
"Also what about me? I've always considered you special, since the first time we met!" The small doll replied.
"I know that, baka.
But that's why I consider you my best friend.
We've spent so much time together that I don't know where I would be now without you… Probably hanging from a ceiling…
Hm? Oh look, your dress got a bit dirty, let me get you some water."
Asuka then reached down next to her seat and grabbed one of the water bottles she had stored in there and after wetting her hand, she cleaned the small doll while it said:
"Asuka, today you did a really good thing with Shinji, he was so focused on you that Kaworu didn't even show up! Hehe, it means that we made good progress from earlier!"
"Yeah I gu- wait, what did you say a moment ago?"
"Wait… How can she not remember something she said just a moment ago? I mean she's basically talking to herself." VEGA thought as he decided to switch from searching for living creatures inside the plug to tracking Asuka's brainwaves.
It wasn't the most accurate of measurements due to both their distance and the metal wall between them, but still better than nothing.
Yet when he got back the results, he was uncertain whether it had been a good idea or not.
The graph showed him that after a beginning period all brain functions collapsed into a single point, only to then come out all distorted and without making any sense whatsoever, as if a young child had scribbled all over the screen.
He focused on the sounds again as he heard Asuka, or whoever was in there say:
"What are you stupid? I said that Kaworu can't show up when you're there because he's too focused on you!"
"Wait, she didn't exactly say that… Did she elaborate on what were probably Asuka's thoughts?" VEGA thought as Asuka replied:
"So… I can stay with him and… that will help him defeat Kaworu?"
"Yes!" The doll replied "But be sure to bring your taser with you! You never know when that white haired bastard is going to come around!"
"I… I'll think about it." Asuka replied as she put the doll away and her brainwaves returned to normal.
"Very interesting… Well, I guess that her 'conversation' is over now. I might as well ask her to come out."
So VEGA flew over to the hatch and knocked on it two times, then he said:
"Asuka it's me VEGA, I was wondering if everything was alright since you left in such a hurry."
She then replied from behind the closed door:
"I'm fine, I just had to think about a couple of things."
"I understand…" VEGA then heard the Slayer tell him over the radio: "Shinji has calmed down, he's stable now."
So he turned back to Asuka and said:
"I'll leave you now, but can you meet us at the communication relay in around three or four minutes? There's a discussion with Wunder we need to have."
"...Okay."
"Perfect, I'm going there to set up the connection, see you later."
He then flew back into the forest, knowing that she couldn't see the communication equipment from how the plug was positioned.
And just like he had predicted, she left the entry plug a moment later, heading into the house.
He took the opportunity to fly out of the trees again and take a look inside.
It was empty.
Except for one thing, a small red doll that almost looked a bit similar to her, with the name 'Asuka' written on it with a black marker, the same one that the Slayer had seen when he first opened it.
The lower part was still wet from when she had washed it with the water bottle, so that confirmed to him that she was talking to herself.
"It's strange though, usually in these situations patients give the object a different name than their own… But I don't see any other explanation at the moment, there aren't even any anomalies in here that I can detect.
It's better if I go now, Ayanami must be getting anxious."
And so he left the plug just like he had found it and flew towards the radio dish.
A while later
As the screen turned on, the Wunder's deck was displayed, with Misato having called all of her major subordinates just like Samuel had asked her to.
Then Misato said:
"Alright, this better be something important guys, I've been busy all day with trying to organize our French friends here."
The lack of any night clothing confirmed that assumption as VEGA said:
"First of all, thank you for your presence and I understand your concern, so I'll get right to it.
Me and Ayanami have developed a plan which would help you tremendously in your war."
"VEGA? Why didn't you tell me this?" Samuel asked and VEGA replied:
"It was right after our previous conversation earlier… I needed some time to recover." He watched Misato's face move slightly under her visor, while Ritsuko looked at her with a confused face.
"Ayanami, please, tell them. " VEGA said as the girl walked forward.
"Hello, I was originally called Rei Ayanami, I am a clone of a person that existed long before me and I was originally trained by NERV to fight against you.
Thanks to the help of all the people around me however, I have decided to leave NERV and join your side.
I know how hard it was for you to fight against my previous iterations and I'm sorry for stealing Ikari from his cell.
That is why I would like to join your cause or at least help you in any way possible."
She suddenly looked back at the boy behind her who was being secretly held in place by Asuka and the Slayer.
And just as she turned around, Ritsuko said:
"But wait, I was a part of your original project and aren't you supposed to take LCL baths to keep your AT field active? It must have been a while since you had a proper one."
Ayanami's light smile immediately faded as VEGA flew in and said:
"That's true, her AT field has been deteriorating and she has fainted a couple of times. We don't know precisely when she will dissolve, but we expect it to be soon.
And this is what leads me to the main idea of our plan.
We are planning to use an artifact inside the fortress to capture her soul before it leaves her body, making it impossible for Gendo to use it again for further cloning."
"Wait… Is that even possible?" Ritsuko asked surprised and VEGA replied:
"Samuel… You know what I'm talking about."
Everyone turned to look at the white and grey robot who had lowered his head a bit as he said:
"Are you really sure you want to use the crucible? You know what it implies right?"
"Absolutely."
"May we be filled in?" Misato asked and so Samuel said:
"This artifact is what is currently powering our ship. After an attack by the demons the previous generator was destroyed so we had to resort to this.
If I were to teleport it over to the village using the portal here on the deck, it would leave the ship and me powerless against NERV's troops, allowing them to get the mark 09 back and to lock VEGA and the Slayer on this planet.
Then the only other option is for me to bring it over to the village, which would deactivate our jamming activity and allow NERV to gain back control of its forces.
If I simply were to stay here, Gendo would be able to get Ayanami's soul back without moving a finger and from what I understand… Start another impact.
Heh. The only way to end this conflict with these cards on the table is to prolong it, but I held up a resistance against the forces of hell for eight months, so count me in VEGA."
"Thank you Samuel, now I-"
"Hey! Who tells us that she isn't trying to trick us!?" Someone suddenly shouted from the Wunder bridge and so Misato scolded him for his rudeness, admitting however that he had a point.
She also added:
"Also, why have you called us in the first place? So far we don't seem to be involved in this."
"I understand why you would think that, sorry. The reason I called you too was because during the process of capturing her soul, the fortress would be deactivated, leaving the village defenseless against a possible attack from NERV.
What I'm requesting is that you come to us and provide cover at least until we are able to secure Ayanami's soul.
It would also be a good opportunity to hand over Ikari to you, but that will be arranged once we meet in person, given his precarious situation we don't really know how to safely hand him over to you. "
"Just put a bullet between his eyes! It's not too hard!" Someone else shouted from the bridge again, irritating VEGA as he said:
"Then please come here and do it yourself you fu-... Because we do not intend to.
We'll maybe do it only after it's decided in court, even then-"
A sudden vision of a black silhouette with large wings flashed in front of VEGA's eyes, on its chest there was a large red word, 'Liar'.
The drone suddenly lost most of its power as the image flashed again. 'Death' was the word this time.
Then it flashed again, 'You'.
And again, 'Only'.
And one final time, 'Bring'.
Asuka was then able to electrocute him back to his normal self, stopping what almost looked like an epileptic attack.
"VEGA! VEGA! Can you hear me?!" Samuel shouted, his voice full of worry for a second time that day.
Thankfully though, the Ai replied:
"D-don't worry, I-I'm fine. Thank you for asking Samuel. And thank you too Asuka."
She nodded, going back to grab Shinji's hand once again, which was trembling as if he was freezing to death.
The Slayer helped VEGA fly back up, along with Rei, who was being extra careful.
Once the situation seemed to have calmed down, they heard a door open and Mari walked through it, excusing herself for being late by saying that she lost track of time in the showers.
And as she saw the two pilots in the back she said:
"Aww looks like you had to put the puppy on a leash right princess?"
"Mari, not right now." Asuka replied as the girl sat down with the others.
Finally, it was Misato who spoke up:
"I've considered your plan VEGA, it's risky and we don't fully trust you if I have to be honest. But your reasoning makes sense, especially with our past experiences.
Stealing from Gendo one of the two pieces necessary to start an impact and have him fight for it with reduced forces is simply too good of a deal to pass up and if anything I've got to thank you for taking care of Shikinami and our prisoner.
I hereby declare that we will move towards village 2 as soon as possible, which given our current circumstances is tomorrow.
I have one final question to ask you however. We know that the angel Matarael resides in the area, do you believe that it will be an issue?"
"No, but just to confirm the Slayer is going to explore the area and try to see how it reacts."
"Perfect. I guess that we may go now."
"Yes, it was good to hear from you. See you soon."
And so Misato disconnected the Wunder's bridge, leaving only Samuel to see Ayanami jumping in the air like a maniac.
"I'll live, I'll live, I'll live! Thank you so much VEGA!" She said as she bear-hugged him.
"I guess that it was hard to contain all that emotion right? Ahah." Samuel said as he watched the Slayer gently separate the two of them.
"Yes! You don't know how hard it was to still when you said that you were with us! I don't even know how to describe this!
Shikinami tell me how I should feel now!"
"Ehhh?! Why are you asking me all of a sudden?"
"Because you are good at doing that with my brother!"
As Shinji heard this his mind reconnected the dots once again, making his entire body tremble in fear, his knees felt weak, his feet hurt and his head felt as light as a balloon.
But, just as he felt that his eyes were about to open the dams and that he was slowly losing control of himself, a powerful giant green hand brought him back to the realm of the living, with a sad Ayanami looking at him.
As the Slayer rubber his head a bit and tried to calm him down, she said:
"Shinji, I have something to ask you."
The fact that she used his first name blocked all the other impulses in his brain as he quickly raised his head to look at her.
"I… I've seen how the mention of my old name upsets you and… That is why I want you to find a new one for me."
"R-Rei?"
"No, for now I'm only Ayanami… Not… Your Ayanami.
I'll never be able to do the same things she did or develop to be like her, but that does not matter, for I have decided to become my own person.
And I want to give you the honor of choosing my name."
Shinji sat on the ground to think about her request, with his elbows resting on his knees and his eyes staring at an empty spot on the ground.
And as he got all of his mental strength together without almost collapsing, he said:
"The thing is… I don't even know where to start. There are so many that could fit you and I just can't… Get Rei's name out of my head when I see you."
Then Asuka added:
"It's a shame really, I won't be able to call you Doll anymore after this act of independence… Or maybe I will, depends that if the name he chooses is stupid enough."
Samuel let out a short snicker as Shinji began mumbling to himself:
"Doll… She won't be able to call you Doll anymore… Dolly-"
Shinji's face suddenly lit up as he looked at Ayanami and asked:
"Does… Does Molly sound like a good name?"
The half second that it took her to reply felt like an eternity to Shinji, but in the end, she smiled at him and said:
"I like it very much, thank you."
Asuka turned her head around and stomped her foot on the ground when she saw him smile, trying to hide something in her face.
Then VEGA said:
"I guess that it's official then, from today onwards you shall be called Molly Ayanami."
The Slayer helped him back up and once Samuel went away, Kensuke came back from the village with the map that they had asked him to get.
He placed it on a nearby table and said:
"Alright here it is, a map of the entire area that is currently decontaminated around us and here-" He said while placing a finger near the image of a small torrent: "Is the main access point to Matarael's cave.
For some points of reference you can see the AT field production complex marked by the large pillars here, while down here there's a cliff commonly used for sightseeing."
"So that's what Rami was focused on at that time, he wanted to go back to his mother…"
"What's this grey building over here? In Matarael's area." Molly asked and as Kensuke moved his eyes to it, his voice cut out for a moment as he said:
"N-nothing important, just an old building that doesn't want to fall apart.
Ahem, anyway, we've got one major issue. You see this body of water over the torrent? It's that lake that Matarael was originally found in and next to it there's the chemical factory too.
Both of these areas are highly radioactive, in fact we were able to communicate with it only when it walked out by itself. If we were to send anyone there they would die in around two minutes and even if they wore heavy protection they wouldn't survive much more than an hour.
That is, if they were normal humans, but I believe that you don't have a problem with radiation, right Slayer?"
"No."
And as he rolled the map back up, Kensuke said: "Alright, get in the car guys, we'll go to the complex first as there's someone I want you to meet."
Most of them nodded, with Shinji simply staying still, which made Asuka grab his hand again and drag him with her.
Meanwhile, on top of a nearby hill, another car started its engine.
On the way to the production complex
"So, Molly, what do you think you'll do before the operation?" Kensuke asked as the red jeep moved over the asphalt.
"I want to stay with Hikari, for both Ikari's protection and my own personal enjoyment."
"That's a good idea, actually tell me VEGA do you thin- Huh?" Kensuke suddenly looked up at the rear mirror for a moment and once he laid back down VEGA asked:
"What is it Kensuke?"
"No, nothing, it's just that I thought to have seen another car behind us for a moment. But it was probably my imagination anyway."
So as I was saying, do you know what's going to happen to her once her soul is absorbed?"
The drone stood still to think for a moment before saying:
"The most probable outcome is that she will end up in an empty dimension from where her consciousness will be able to materialize.
Unfortunately she won't be alone, as the artifact already contains the souls of three beings, which provide it with power.
Still I've been able to… Make them 'respect' me in the past, so you'll be fine Molly."
"Oh! New people, yay! I want to meet them." Molly suddenly said and VEGA replied as Kensuke exited the main road:
"I don't think that you'd enjoy staying with them."
AT field production complex
"Alright we're here, but before we do anything else go over to that cabin on our left. There are some hazmat suits that you need to wear."
"I thought that this area wasn't intoxicated?" VEGA said and Kensuke replied:
"It isn't, but because of those large pillars the LCL in the air is very high, possibly dangerous, especially for you Shikinami."
"You don't have to tell me twice." She said as she dragged her idiot out of the car, followed by everyone else.
A while later they had all put on the suits, except for the Slayer, whose appearance hadn't changed at all. So Kensuke asked:
"Hm? Did we run out of suits?"
And VEGA replied: "No, it's just that the Slayer's armor decomposed the suit into Argent, forming a protective layer around it."
"Ohh, interesting. Anyway, since we're all done here, I think that we can go out."
As they exited the area, a large open Red field presented itself in front of them, where five gigantic black pillars had been erected. Those produced an AT field strong enough to cover the entire five kilometer wide area.
If they looked up at the sky, they could see some large faint orange hexagons floating just under the clouds, while if they looked down, they could see the sea of cables and the five surveillance stations connected to the pillars.
Another person in a hazmat suit approached them pretty soon. They weren't very tall, around Asuka or Shinji's height, and the faint shape of their body that could be made out from the deformations in the suit confirmed that they were pretty young.
Once in front of them they stopped walking and said:
"Hello Kensuke, I see that you brought some friends, it's a pleasure to meet all of you. Oh and you're Shinji Ikari right? My mother told me a lot about you."
Shinji was surprised by this and his brain refused to give any response other than a confused face, so then the other boy said:
"Oh sorry, I haven't introduced myself." He said while removing the helmet:
"My name is Kaji Ryoji Jr. son of Misato Katsuragi."
The boy then extended a hand to Shinji, but the other boy was still stuck in his head as memories of Misato from the Wunder came back faster and faster. And as he heard: 'You won't be doing anything from now on.' His heart skipped a beat and made him jump away, leaving Ryoji quite confused.
Suddenly though he was grabbed by Asuka from behind as she whispered into his ear:
"I'm sick of your shit. With me you're not allowed to run away anymore."
She then pushed him back forward, where he had no choice but put all of his resolve into one action and shake Kaji's hand.
After that awkward moment, the boy's face brightened again as he said:
"Let me show you around, there's tons of interesting stuff here."
Near one of the pillars
"Watch out where you place your feet near the pillar, the ground there is really frail."
Kaji said as they approached the giant black structure, with a white monitoring station that had the number 04 painted on it in grey.
Once they were just a couple of meters away from it, they were able to notice all the different red glowing patterns that occupied its entire surface.
And as VEGA tried running some scans on it, they all came back to give him an error message, so he asked:
"So Kaji, this is where you work right? Can you tell us about these pillars?"
"Sure, I have lots of questions for you guys later too, especially you Shinji." He said with a smile before continuing:
"I don't really remember the name of these things, we just call them protective pillars for simplicity. They were placed here during an operation by the Wunder to test if they actually worked and over time the village developed around the original test site.
I can't really tell you how they work, because the only thing that I know is that they are made with a material found under Tokyo 3's surface and that they are self-powering once activated.
This one in particular is pillar 04, which acts as a support for the main one in the middle that you see over there. Still it generates a really strong AT field, which together with the others has been able to protect us from the L barrier and failures of infinity just fine for all these years."
"Wait, failures of infinity can attack you?" VEGA asked surprised.
"Yeah, but only if there's an AT field strong enough for them to detect, which given their state needs to be really strong."
"Do you have a way to get rid of them or?"
"No, we just keep them out and wait until they lose interest or sense something else."
"It makes sense, given the fact that it's not too large of an outpost all things considered, right?"
"Yep, still life has been nice for me, I've met some great people here at the village let me tell you. We've got ex bankers, people who used to work for some random company, ex-criminals, pizza guys and so many more."
"Pizza guys? You mean like ex-pizza workers or?" VEGA asked and Kaji replied:
"Nope, we've got an actual pizzeria here, it helps us keep up with the long work hours. Maybe we can go there if you want to later."
"Alright, so… What do you do here anyway?"
"Well, while the pillars are self-powering, they do produce a lot of heat and might stop working because of that. Since their activation is based on advanced coding knowledge, we don't have the tools and the knowledge to reset one of them in a reasonable amount of time.
So we just keep them cooled down thanks to refrigerant liquid that runs through all the cables on the ground.
Of course all these need to be checked and maintained regularly, which isn't the easiest thing to do in these heavy suits.
Now, Shinji, let me ask you something."
"Hm?" Shinji replied not without some hesitation.
"I've heard that you were on the Wunder right? What did you see of my mother? I mean everyone tells me that she's always been mean like that, but I know that's not true!
I'm sure that you know because you two lived together before I was born right?"
As if Shinji had a computer-like mind, all of his memories where Misato smiled suddenly flashed in front of his eyes as he heard Kaworu say:
"Yes Shinji, that's what they took from you, they manipulated you and robbed you of Misato's smile. Your father is the sole cause of this, but if we get to work together we'll be able to win against him. Then your world will be perfect. Listen Shin-"
"Ow!" The boy exclaimed as he felt Asuka's taser on his back, even though its power was highly reduced by the fabric covering him.
"Stay focused dammit, answer his question." Asuka whispered to him as she walked back and whispered to VEGA: "Thanks for telling me about Kaworu."
Then the same situation from earlier repeated and Shinji said:
"Yes… I mean she took me into her apartment since she didn't want me to live alone and it was nice living with her…. Though I don't think that that can happen ever again after what I've done…"
A tense silence was about to form when Kaji suddenly shouted:
"Nonsense! You just confirmed my idea of you instead Shinji, you're one of the few people who can still make her laugh and smile!"
"Wait me!?"
"Him!?" Asuka suddenly added from behind him and so Kaji continued:
"Alright Shinji so… Sorry for not being completely honest with you earlier, but I was...Testing the waters, as you're my idol."
"What!? Why!? I mean I'm… The reason your life is so horrible!" Shinji replied with even more disbelief than before.
"That's true, but… Even though we rarely met since she left me here, every time I asked my mother about you, I could feel her getting happier even if the memory was a bad one. Because deep down I feel like she still cares about you.
And the village has helped me in this regard too, for example look at that bald guy over there. He abandoned his wife on the day of his daughter being born to participate in a bank heist, which caused him to start a journey around the world to not get caught by international forces.
Yet he kept doing crimes, torturing people, working with shady organizations, human trafficking and do much more.
He changed when he went really close to his death once, saved only by what I could describe as a miracle.
From there on out he started turning his life around, first by sending all the money that he got from his jobs back home to support his child, then months later he willingly gave himself to authorities just so he could see his family again.
And even though he was sentenced to life in prison, every day he wrote at least two letters to them where he announced his love for both his wife and his daughter.
Then, just after the war, he was freed and so they came here seeking a new life, with him constantly going on about how he was able to redeem himself.
And that's the main reason why I am telling you this, Shinji. You're my idol because you make my mother think that she can redeem herself, you give her hope just by existing.
Which is why I believe that you can seek redemption too,Shinji. You just need to have the right mindset for it.
Over the years the times when she was genuinely happy were very scarce, so I grew to cherish her smile and to hate her sadness.
So my request is that…
I want you to never make her sad again and to try your best to make her smile.
She's a lonely woman, and I'm stuck here for my own safety, but you can leave any time you want and comfort her on my behalf, by reminding her that there's at least still a kid that loves her.
I know that you might hate her given… What happened, but Shinji I just want you to let her know that her son loves her, even though she abandoned me at the village's train station all those years ago."
A sudden memory appeared in Shinji's head, where Gendo was about to walk away from the young boy, but he stopped and gave the young Shinji a strong hug before leaving him to go live with his uncles.
He suddenly felt something tremble in his heart and a moment later an unknown force was moving him closer to Kaji Jr,yet he felt like no one was pushing him.
Instead, as he suddenly placed a hand on Kaji Jr's shoulder, his heart finally stabilized enough to pump the blood to his brain and make him realize what was happening.
He was feeling empathy towards him, empathy towards someone who had gone through the same things he did as a child.
And when he opened his mouth to answer the words came naturally to him, as if he had only said those words for his entire life:
"I will...Because I- I still care about her too."
"Thank you…Shinji." Kaji replied as he turned to look at the side and saw a woman approaching, unknowingly letting Shinji see the constantly pulsating veins in his neck and the deep hidden layer of sadness in his eyes.
Kaji approached the older woman away from the others and began talking with her and during their conversation Shinji turned around to see that a small smirk had formed on Asuka's face, though he wasn't sure what could be the cause of it.
He also turned to look at the Slayer and VEGA who both seemed very gloomy and their faces were dark, almost like the sun had disappeared just for them.
"They're hiding something… Watch out with your trust in them, Shinji." Kaworu said as Shinji replied with a confused face, yet the message had still slithered into his subconscious.
Asuka looked back at him for a moment, noticing how he was standing a bit straighter than before as she thought:
"Great, he's getting better every day. I've really outdone myself with saving such a serious case like him ahah!
And not just because I feel strange every time I see him or anything, it's just that a degree in psychology will definitely help after the war. I mean I'll still get to keep my eva of course, but it'll be a good decoration for my office since I won't use it anymore ahah…
Yeah, surviving after the war...
God I really am pathetic…"
Suddenly loud sirens blared all throughout the compound as all the workers were seen rushing to their positions and the ground suddenly began shaking.
Kaji Jr immediately ran back to them as he said:
"Come with me! Failures of infinity have awakened!"
The boy began running towards the edge of the shield and the group followed him, with the woman joining them as she said:
"So, you're the newcomers I heard about? I'm Kazuya, nice to meet you."
"The pleasure is ours." VEGA replied as they kept following the boy who was starting to gain on them, but simply because they were busy with their conversation.
And as they got closer to Kazuya's monitoring station she said:
"Hey Shinji! Good work making him smile like that! He almost never does."
"W-what anf do you mean?"
"That smirk that he has on his face constantly is fake, in reality he's dealing with depression, but he's really good at hiding it, like most people like him are. I've lost count of how many times I found him crying in a corner, but today my heart melted when I saw him react to you accepting his request. A few more smiles like that and it'll be he never even tried to kill himself that one time. Thankfully his mother managed to save him….
Oh I have to go, bye!"
And so she left the group, who all began looking at the boy in front of them far more differently than before.
Some time later, at a nearby observation tower.
"It should be coming around the hill any moment now… There it is!"
Kaji Jr suddenly said as he lowered his binoculars and pointed to a nearby hilltop, where two large and long dark red arms suddenly appeared, dragging the enormous body of a failure of infinity along with them.
This one had a malformed leg and no head, so it could neither walk or see, but it's senses were developed enough to make it slide towards the AT shield.
The boy then took a radio from his pocket and said to the pillar stations:
"Keep the power low guys, we don't have to worry about this one."
"Roger Ryoji."
"I always tell you to just call me Kaji. Ryoji makes me feel old."
"Heh, I think I already heard that somewhere… Wait… Kaji there's a second presence on the radar! This one awakened right next to you!"
Before the boy could reply, a bloody gigantic hand slammed the shield right in front of them as the almost completely formed failure of infinity hid them in its shadow, towering over them as it slowly stood up and reached a staggering eighty meters of height.
It had lots of pieces of armor missing, along with a lot of its stomach, but for the rest it was just like a rushed and ruined copy of unit 01.
Suddenly two bright red eyes popped out of the mask and looked down at them.
Then the beast opened its mouth so wide that its jaw made a loud snapping sound while the giant razor teeth sank into the shield and cracked it a bit.
"Shit! Give it more power guys!"
"Roger that!"
A sudden *Bzoom* sound was heard as the pillars began producing a much stronger AT field while the cooling fans were turning on one after the other.
And from the other side of the line the operators shouted:
"Turbines are green from one to twenty!
Coolant fluid pressure is holding up. The pumps are in the green as well!
Everything is holding steady Kaj-"
*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*
Alarms fired everywhere as three columns of smoke rose from the points of origin of the three explosions.
This caused the cooling system to go offline and without the ability to disperse the heat, the pillars powered down in order to not explode as well..
The group in the tower looked again at the failure of infinity as it began slamming its head into the shield with all of its teeth hitting it. Soon it began to crack, with the damage becoming more extensive with each successive hit.
So Kaji Jr. shouted:
"Shit! Everyone, let's go from this tower to a safer place! That failure of infinity is about to breach the shield!"
He looked for a moment to his side, noticing that the Slayer had just loaded his double barrel shotgun and so he asked:
"Uhm Slayer… What are you doing? W-we have to get down and-"
The man turned his head to the side just enough to let him see burning hot red rage that was emanating from his eyes.
A moment later, the AT field was destroyed.
Play: [Flesh and metal] Doom 2016 OST
The failure of infinity roared as the Slayer fired the meathook at one of its arms, grappling around it as he landed a precision bolt shot right into one of its eyes.
He landed on its elbow and like an annoying mosquito, then jumped away when the other hand came down to try and crush him.
He dashed to the other elbow in a second and landed a second precision bolt shot at the other free eye, followed by a rocket too.
Finally he pulled out the ballista and landed a clean shot right in the iris, completely destroying one of its eyes.
Using this opportunity, the Slayer used the meathook again to get behind its neck, where he activated the mobile turret and blasted away the protective panel with a lot of bullets.
Finally, with what looked like an entry plug exposed, the Slayer destroyed it with two super shotgun shots.
Suddenly though a powerful hand slapped him away as he was launched through the air, landing deeper into the red desert.
And as he looked at the beast in front of him, VEGA and Samuel contacted him, saying that the core needed to be destroyed in order to theoretically kill the creature.
The Slayer began running towards it, but suddenly the other unit from before that had been crawling on the ground, grabbed the Slayer and lifted him up in the air.
It was a very strong grip so it took him enough time to free himself for the creature to suddenly stand up and reveal the gigantic mouth that had formed in its chest.
He looked behind himself, noticing that the over failure of infinity was running erratically at them and as he looked back at the one that was holding him, he saw the red core right on its throat.
The only problem was that it was placed right past a lot of razor sharp teeth much larger and sharper than the ones he had seen inside the Gaghiel drone, so the shield wouldn't have worked this time.
There were so many in fact that it was almost like jumping down a pit made completely out of them, where normal skin was almost nonexistent.
Since however the edges of the mouth were still made of flesh, he got an idea and waited for when the other giant was about to run into them.
As the time arrived, he easily freed himself and jumped directly into the giant mouth, launching a freeze grenade and two normal ones into it to both stop the jaw from closing and destroying the teeth further inside.
He then landed a powerful blood punch into the core, cracking it into a million pieces.
A moment later the other unit ran into them, making the dying one fall to the ground and leaving itself with the core exposed.
The group watched from afar as the Slayer erupted out of the chest of the previous creature with one of its giant teeth, impaling it right on top of the other red sphere.
He finally took out his super shotgun and fired once, ending the fight as the second failure died too.
[Music slowly fades]
He looked back at the others and started walking down the dead bodies when suddenly they began to dissolve into red and blue gas.
The two materials seemed to try to absorb one another and as two clouds touched, he began hearing soft screams and moans.
His eyes widened when he realized what it was, but just to be sure, he looked at his right arm, noticing a small cut on the exposed part.
He moved it closer to the blue and red mass, when his suit activated and pulled a bit of material into him. He watched intrigued as his wound completely healed in just a few moments, standing silently as he saw all the blue and red clouds rise into the sky and disappear as the screams slowly died down.
Finally, a sentence over the intercom from Samuel summarized every thought that was racing through his mind:
"What the hell is Argent energy doing here?"
TO BE CONTINUED