Chapter 83: Transcendence
Inside Unit-03, Bardiel moved the unit around. Feeling that it was still in one piece from impacting with the mountain, it slowly got the war machine to stand again. Looking at the fierce combat of the other Evas, it decided to ignore them. Turning toward the direction of where the NERV base would be, it felt it needed to go underground to get there. Walking down the mountain side, the Angel refocused on its purpose. When it reached the bottom and stepped onto the flatland, it felt something had entered the dark blue unit's chest. Looking down, there was a smashed-inserted entry-plug.
'…?' Bardiel thought feeling something was there. '…strange…part of the lilim's mind and essence are there…I do not understand.'
Pausing on doing its purpose, it became curious on capturing what was there. Flesh and organic growth swarmed over the crushed entry-plug and enclosed it. Bubbling flesh covered over the open wound then hardened shortly after giving the appearance that it had healed over. Penetrating and absorbing the capsule, the Angel collected the essence of the lilim's body, spirit, and mind. It had tried to absorb both the other human that still had its physical body; however, the soul inside the dark blue Eva protected him and itself with much vigor. Leaving them be for the time being, it finished with collecting and absorbing. Changing its focus back, it took another step forward when something rushed viciously into its mind's eye.
'…what…is…this?' Bardiel thought seeing memories flood it's conscious and spread through its mindscape like wildfire.
It was seeing a series of savage images, thoughts, and feelings that brutishly invaded its mind. The Angel shivered from seeing nothing but an endless sea of lilim suffering and atrocity. Despite being in control and immune to any sort of memories, it was feeling sensations that made it feel uncomfortable and start to become apprehensive. Deciding that enough was seen and a need to take control again, it picked an environment to converse and overtake the new lilim soul. Using a memory from the individual, it shifted its view and mental environment.
Upon opening its mind's eye, it saw that the environment had been established. It was in an empty train car that was riding to an unknown destination. Looking up and across from where the Angel's figure was sitting, it saw a dark outline of a male teenage lilim laying flat on the bench seat. Bardiel saw the male slowly fill in with color. Blinking, the Angel gave the individual its free will for the time being.
'…' Shinji thought slowly being able to open his eyes a little. Looking around at where he was, a feeling of an outer body experience registered in his mind. Remember the last thing that happened, it was both deathly painful and strangely liberating. Sensing an intense figure near him, the Third Child slowly sat up while closing his eyes. Turning toward the dark silhouette and sitting straight, he opened his eyes slowly with a stoic expression.
'…!?' Bardiel thought in surprise seeing black and red eyes stare back. It made a slight confirmation that this particular lilim was the one making it feel these sensations.
'…H…e…l…l…o…s…i…r…' the male pilot thought staring.
'You are a lilim of suffering…agony…pain…torture…broken…dead.'
'You must be…the Angel I p-p-p $#% #presume?'
'…?' the Angel thought blinking and watching small glitches occur on the lilim's mouth. For some strange reason, the flinching images made it feel on edge.
'Yes…who…are you?'
'A human.'
'A lilim,' Bardiel stated noticing that the boy hadn't blinked and was still staring directly at it. Something about the black-red eyes felt wrong and ominous. It also started to notice that the environment started to move when it was not focusing on it.
'Is there something-somethi-somet-som-so-ssssssssssss#$^ #$^' the boy's soul voiced before glitching more and more. '…I can do for you s-s-s-s-s-s-siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrr?'
'Enough of this trivialness' the Angel voiced then leaned forward. 'Become one with me.'
'If ordered to do so sir, then I shall,' Shinji thought blinking slowly.
'I can end this sea of suffering,' Bardiel stated with a small cruel smile. 'Release yourself.'
'If ord #$%^ ered to do so then I w-w-w-w-w-w-w-will comply #$^ ##' the boy thought as the last word ended with a high piercing squeak of static and noise.
'Are we not c…o…m…b…i…n…e…d…as one already?'
'…' Bardiel voiced seeing that the train car environment was starting to bend on itself back and forth.
Feeling that its position was not safe, it instantly moved to be standing near one of the sliding doors. Looking back at where it was, something was morphing the material and slowly spreading. It gave the impression that something was infecting the environment. Ignoring it and the eerie feeling from it, the Angel figure turned to the lilim. Only its black-red eyes moved to where it was standing while continuing to face where it sat last.
'Your body and mind are mine; however, your soul has not. Stop resisting.'
'…' the Third Child said tilting his head away from the Angel. A sickening pop was heard from its neck making the Angel confused at what kind of gesture it meant.
'Resisting is futile lilim. I am an Angel. Superior to your inferior kind. You cannot overtake me,' Bardiel voiced neutrally.
The environment around him slowly started to expand outward as various objects and things started coming into existence. Not sure what was happening, it saw the boy slowly stand up and blink slowly. Instead of putting its head back straight, the human soul turned to the Angel and started walking slowly toward it. Bardiel watched as the individual moved closer to it till being toe-to-toe. A sense of uneasiness and dread washed over it seeing the teen boy this close. Without warning, a hand from the male pilot clasped over its mouth and jaw area. The Angel flinched in surprise feeling the murderous grip strength of the lilim spirit's hand.
' #$^you#$^ ^sssssaaaaawwwwww #$ $%&my #$% $%& m…e…m…o…r…i…e…s…' the Third Child stated in his mind slowly and looking very intently at the silhouette's blank face.
'Becoming one causes all memories to be shared,' Bardiel stated trying to get out of the grip hold of the lilim. The hand clenching its face was getting more and more eerie the longer the hold. About to speak, the Angel's mind vision went static for a second. The environment changed and looked darker, run down, and had a faint smell of metal.
'…you…cause…memories…appear…you…tormentor?' the boy asked with vileness in its stoic expression.
'No…I am an Angel…I offer transcendence…your suffering will cease-' Bardiel thought when an icy cold chill emitted from the lilim's hand. Sporadic images of memories played over the Angel's mental eye. Certain ones had various devices used in which each had different amounts of suffering tied to it.
'…' Shinji thought as his eyes opened wide and glowed with an eerie sheen at the Angel silhouette. Bardiel felt a good amount of fear arise quickly in the environment and in the presence of the lilim. Deciding to keep the human soul here, the Angel vanished from the mental environment. Returning back to controlling Eva-03, it saw that the other units were still fighting each other. About to force the dark blue machine to move, a soft buzz sound was heard.
'…?' the Angel thought hearing the sound.
Not seeing or thinking of it as a threat, it went back to controlling the Eva. An ice cold hand grabbed its essence making it flinch stiff. Sounds of swimming were heard behind Bardiel; however, it was coming from all directions and getting closer. The feeling of dread and fright slowly increased as the swimming sounds were getting closer. About to destroy the lilim soul floating in its mindscape, the freezing hand yanked it backwards viciously. Unable to resist in time, the Angel got pulled back and down. A series of screams high and low started going off and getting louder and louder. As the Angel went down, it started see the white mindscape morphing into something else.
As if spiraling down a sea of memories, Bardiel shook with fear as the memories of the lilim's soul played everything over and over again relentlessly. Every thought, every physical sensation, every emotional turmoil, and every psychological destruction of the individual's mind repeated. What pushed the Angel's mind to the edge were all the schizophrenic images and false realities that alter its perception of what was real. Everywhere Bardiel turned and looked; various things and figures would torment and psychologically abuse it.
'BEGONE!' the Angel command loudly. However, the memories and alterations did not disappear. It seemed that they were continuously growing and making the environment beyond stable. Not able to control its surrounds, Bardiel kept getting flooded with the chaotic images and false sensations that absorbed all of its senses.
'…stop…stop this!…NO…I SAID STOP…STOP THIS!' the Angel thought both irritated and panicking; however, it didn't stop the chaotic mental bombardment.
It tried again and again to be heard over all the evil giggles, laughing voices, screams, and various voices that made it feel worthless. The psychedelic hell started to magnify to unbearable limits as the Angel tried to shut everything out. No matter how hard Bardiel attempted to clear its mindscape, the chaos remained and continued to become even more vivid and surreal. Losing its grip with itself and to relieve itself from this pain, it tried to self-destruct.
'…!?' the Angel said with a gasp feeling another ice cold hand murderously grab its figure.
Without warning or mercy, the two hands began to pull the silhouette apart. In a lurching movement, the Angel's figure was pulled apart viciously. Gore and blood spread out everywhere as its body floated in the mindscape. In a matter of moments, the chaotic imagery was overtaken and covered with a haunting hue of crimson. A few seconds went by with the void being completely still. Suddenly, two black-red eyes appeared in the red void. Floating and looking around, it's spotted a faint white light far away. Blinking, the eyes slowly swam towards it.
"Four minutes of emergency power remaining for Unit-01!" Maya stated from her monitor.
Back at the NERV base, the crew was staring at Unit-01. The dummy plug system was defending and fending off attacks from both Eva-00 and Eva-02. Makoto was watching the Evas battle each other when an alert stopped flashing. Blinking, he adjusted his glasses and looked down.
"Huh?" he said looking at his monitor. The blue alert for an Angel had stopped. There was no presence of an Angel out where the Evas were.
"D-Dr. Akagi!" he called with confusion as he typed on the monitor panel.
"What is it?"
"Code Blue has been canceled. I'm not getting an Angel signal anymore."
"What?!" the head scientist stated walking over to his monitor to see in fact that there was no Angel readings amongst the Evas.
'…how…did the Fourth Child have something to do with it?' Ritsuko thought though doubted it was possible.
"Maya, are you able to bring up the cockpit view of Eva-03?"
"Cockpit view…is enabled. Bring it up on the main screen," the bridge monitor stated typing a few commands. On the main screen, the cockpit view of Eva-03 came into view on a window. It showed Toji to be unconscious and unharmed. Nothing looked out of the ordinary inside.
"How is the pilot?"
"Readings are stable despite being unconscious," Maya stated then turned to the head scientist. "Did the Angel inside Eva-03 go dormant?"
"Possibly. This is a new type of Angel in which it infected the unit prior to getting here. We would have to analyze it to find out how."
"Wouldn't that pose a great risk capturing it and bringing it here?"
"Without knowing that the Angel inside is dead or not, bringing the unit in would be a grave risk," Ritsuko stated crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"Three minutes of emergency power remaining for Unit-01!"
'What the…' Shigeru stated seeing something on his monitor that caused mild bewilderment.
"Eva-03…is trying to open a comm-link?"
"The Unit is!? But the pilot is knocked out." Makoto stated in surprise.
"Put it through," Ritsuko stated walking toward the monitor. Shigeru nodded and punched in the commands. Opening a comm-link window on the main screen, it was open to all the Evas as well as the command center. Only low volume static and noises emitted from the window.
"Strange…it is on a different frequency," the bridge monitor tech stated and began rapidly inputting commands. Suddenly there was another wave of static and white noise. It was coming from the comm-link with Eva-01.
"What's going on?" Gendo stated out loud feeling tense from hearing the comm-link with Unit-01 go static.
"Both Eva-01 and Eva-03 communication frequencies are being altered by the units themselves. Attempting to calibrate and trace," Shigeru stated out loud as he continued to track.
"They are," Ritsuko stated with a wave of bewilderment and looking back at the main screen. The dark blue unit slowly turned its attention toward the other Evas that were continued to fight the purple unit.
"Both communicating with each other?" she said.
"Private comm-link established with both Unit-01 and Unit-03! I can't track the frequency…it keeps changing!" Shigeru stated in frustration.
In the cockpit of the dark blue war machine, a window populated showing nothing but darkness. It was to Eva-01.
[…I-I-I-I…am…rea-rea-rea-ready] a bloody text formed on the screen.
[…heeeeeeeeeeeeee…] the evil clone sent a bloody text back.
Rei and Asuka saw the purple unit suddenly expand its AT-Field tenfold rapidly. Putting theirs up, the incoming expanding energy barrier was stronger than theirs and pushed both back a few hundred feet. Feeling that something had changed, both Eva pilots noticed that the American Eva was standing straight and looking at them in the distance. Turning their attention back to the purple unit, it stood straight and slowly turned around. Everyone saw that both units were staring at each other.
"Hey! What's going on?" Asuka stated out loud still giving dagger eyes at the purple unit.
[I'm not sure. Code Blue has been disabled] Ritsuko stated over the comm-link.
"Ehh!?" the redhead said blinking. "Isn't Eva-03 an Angel?!"
"…" Rei said still glaring at Eva-01. Establishing a private comm-link with Eva-03, she saw that only the unconscious Fourth Child was in the cockpit. Asuka saw the same thing and looked confused.
[…aha…AhA…AHAHAHAHA…HEE-HEE-HEE-HEEEEEEEEEEEEE…] a bloody text dripped profusely on the communication window in Eva-03 with Unit-01 only.
"Two minutes left for Unit-01's emergency batteries!" Makoto stated out loud.
[ #$% #ENDULGE#$^ #%&ME #$^ #%]
The purple unit suddenly dashed toward Unit-03 quickly that was standing still. Responding, the dark blue Eva mad dashed at Unit-01. When both got into close proximity of each other, their AT fields clashed with fiery intensity. Both war machines were pushing their hands forward to project their protective energy barrier. Hearing deep and lethargic low chuckle from one unit, the other said nothing. Everyone watched as the fields began to grow in size and height. In a matter of 30 seconds, the clashing of barriers was sending orange electricity far and wide growing to the size of two football fields.
[MMMMOOORRREEEEE…MORE-MORE-MORE-MOREMOREMOREMOREMOREMORE!]
[…]
All the sudden, Unit-03's eye glowed hauntingly white and its mouth parted. It bellowed a deep raged roar that shook the speakers in the comm-links. Both Eva's AT fields dispersed like shattered glass instantly and sent both Evas backwards. Sliding to halt, both pushed off the ground and sprinted uncannily faster toward each other. Upon colliding, the two units commenced hand combat at a faster rate than what Ayanami and Asuka were battling at.
For 30 seconds, both Evas savagely punched, kicked, smashed, and threw each other. The NERV crew became entranced from the fight feeling it being viciously brutal. Each hit caused the earth underneath their feet to give, massive divots to form, or explosions from the shockwave impact of the blows. The view of the cockpit for Unit-03 showed that the sheer power behind the impacts was thrashing the unconscious Fourth Child around in his seat. It didn't take long for both units to look more and more wrecked as neither stopped their assault on each other.
"One minute of emergency energy supply remaining for Unit-01!" Makoto stated out loud still locked on the battle.
A sinister and barely audible low cackle came over the loud speakers as the purple war machine broke away and jumped high into the air. Spreading its arms out and pointing both feet down, massive amounts of orange electricity exploded from its back. Crudely made sharp wings formed causing the unit to levitate in the air. Taking one of its arms and raising it to the sky, orange electricity was produced out of its palm. The lightening sparks formed into an energy copy of the Spear of Longinus. Eva-01 grinned wildly looking down at Unit-03 with its head tilted at an angle at one side. A wave of shock emitted from the NERV bridge crew.
"What on earth?" Fuyutsuki stated with a shocked expression and also seeing Gendo looked surprised as well.
Everyone in the command center was at a loss from what they were seeing. About to throw the spear down, a dark halo formed above the head of the Unit-03. At the same time, the ground underneath the Eva became black and the unit started to fall quickly in it. Releasing an seductive grunt, the purple unit threw the spear with tremendous speed at the dark blue Eva. Unit-03 vanished in the dark void prior to the energy spear hitting the ground. Upon contact, a massive explosion was produced throwing earth and electricity far and wide. It was as if an N2 mine was dropped.
"30 seconds remaining!" Makoto stated quickly looking back at his monitor.
"…where…where is the other unit?!" Ritsuko asked witnessing the destructive power. She was equally fascinated and afraid at the new abilities that the Evas were showing. The frightful intriguing part was how the dummy plug system seemed to unlock the new abilities.
[yEsYeSYESYESYESYESYYYYEEEESSSSSSSS!] the dark clone screeched so loud in the mind of Unit-01 that its head started to shake hard.
Bringing in the purple war machine's limbs to form a crouching ball, the crude and sharp orange electric wings started growing longer and more savage. When the mass of the wings became the size of a four story mansion, religious symbols could be seen on the wings. Feeling its limit, Eva-01 quickly expanded its limbs outward. It materialized dozens of energy forms of Spear of Longinus around itself.
"10 seconds remaining!"
"This is the power of the Evas?!" Asuka stated out loud looking at the massive amount of energy being emitted.
'Where is Unit-03?' Rei thought to herself only looking angry at the purple unit and staying her ground.
"…" Gendo said gripping his hands into fists. Kozo was sweating while feeling Yui beginning to stir awake.
All the sudden, the loud speakers cut out and then it emitted someone hyperventilating. The comm-link to Unit-01 started to crack until the rapid breathing changed to an evil giggle. It continued to grow in volume and depth to a full out monstrous distorted cackle. The vileness that came from the laughter kept getting louder and louder. On the screen, Eva-01's head was seen laughing to the sky being in synch with the sounds of laughing from the speakers.
"5 seconds remaining!" Makoto said when a large black halo appeared behind the purple war machine.
"…4…" Unit-03 slowly came out of the black halo.
"…3…" Unit-03 swiftly gripped the sides of Unit-01's head.
"…2…" A loud, gruesome blood popping snap sounded on the comm-links as the purple war machine's head rotated past 180 degrees.
"…1…" Like shattered glass, all the orange electricity from Eva-01 disintegrated along with the energy formed spears.
"Emergency batteries for Unit-01 are depleted! Unit is shutting down," Makoto stated still holding his breath in tension and fear.
The crew saw the glowing red eyes of the purple unit dim to black. Its limbs slumped down as it fell to the ground. Impacting the ground like a lifeless doll, it made a small crater in the earth. Unit-03 dropped to the ground and landed on its feet. The dark halo above its head followed and dispersed once on the ground. Looking down at the purple unit, the dark blue war machine stared at it for a little then its eyes went dark.
"Eva-03 has shutdown," Maya stated.
"Begin sending recovery teams to retrieve both units. Pilots, return to base. Dr. Akagi, run tests on all pilots and the Evas for possible contamination. I want a full report of the results," Gendo stated in a calm tone.
"Yes Commander," she said turning around and looking up.
"Everyone else, begin recovery phase," he stated then turned to see Yui recovering slowly but looked weak.
"Kozo, help me get Yui to the medical facility."
"Sure."
While recovering all the units were in progress, another recovery team had already been dispatched to the second testing facility. Once getting to the destroyed area, the group recovered many survivors including Misato. Escaping the explosion with a few bruises and a sprained arm, she was able to walk around. One of the communication staff from the recovery team handed her a wireless phone stating it was from Dr. Akagi.
"H-Hey Rits," she stated looking at her other arm being put into a sling.
[Misato!…thank god you are alright.]
"Yeah, but I am not doing so hot. What happened? After the synch-test, everything went white."
[Eva-03 was infected with an Angel and attacked the facility.]
"W-wait! What?! How?!"
[I don't know the details. From what we saw, the Angel was a microscopic organism that entered the Unit. Probably got infected when it was being transported.]
"All the Angels so far have been towering and massive. How can the core be that small on a microscopic level?"
[Again, I don't know how. We will be running tests on the unit.]
"The kids were able to defeat it?!"
[…not exactly…]
"W-What do you mean? Are they okay?"
[…it is rather difficult to explain…once you are able to leave there, I will show you the video from the battle] Ritsuko said with a hollow tone.
"Hey Rits…everyone is alright? Right?"
[I will show you when you get here. See you.]
'Something did happen,' Misato thought feeling a sharp pull in her stomach.
Upon reaching NERV HQ, the Major was told that Dr. Akagi and pilots were in the control room of the Eva cages. Once she got there, the atmosphere was depressing and sorrowful. Rana was still crying in Asuka's chest as the female pilot was trying to comfort her. At the same time, the redhead was holding back from her eyes watering too much. Rei had tears falling freely down her cheeks as she had a downcast head. Ritsuko looked like she had shed tears and was forcing herself to not cry more. The makeup under her eyes had come off.
"H-Hey…what's going on? Rits…where…where is Shinji?" Misato asked feeling her heart starting to ache.
"He…didn't make it," Ritsuko said quietly and started typing on a monitor.
"…what…" the major said in a whisper and saw her friend pull up a video of the Angel battle. It was a view of the main monitor in the command center. When the cockpit view of the Third Child came, the event occurred. Just as brutal as it was the first time, Rei made sounds of gripping herself tighter and crying more silently. Rana held onto the Second Child more making choking sobs as the redhead continued to hold back her emotions though grimaced.
"…what…what…how…no…" Misato said in shell-shock as tears came down freely.
When the video continued with the dummy system being engaged, the "dagger" scene came. Ritsuko grimaced and clenched her hands into fists. Misato could only stare with eyes widen in horror. She brought a hand to her mouth and one on her heart. The blood pumping organ felt so painful with each beat. It felt like it was being torn in a more than savaged way. After the video stopped, Ritsuko put her hands in her lab coat pockets.
"The Fourth Child has been recovered with only mild trauma and bruises. The capsule for Unit-01 is crudely inserted into Unit-03; however, all the contents in it had leaked out and been crushed. Even if we tried to revive the pilot with microbiologic regeneration through the Eva, there isn't enough material or DNA left to use in the capsule. Both Unit-01 and Unit-03 will be undergoing repairs and tests to figure out what happened. All units will also go through screenings to make sure there isn't any other Angel material or microorganism inside them."
"Hey…Rits…there has to be some way…right?" Misato said weakly not wanting to believe what she saw.
"There is nothing we can do," she said and walked away with a downcast head.
With all the Evas in the cage, only Unit-01 had its head slumped down. Cables and pulleys were being used to get the head to look straight. When it was stable and locked in position, the expression the unit had was still grinning. The evil clone inside the unit couldn't stop grinning either. Digging into itself, the sensations experienced was beyond overwhelming and exhilarating. Despite the unit being powered down, it knew that the other units were in the same cage area. Clicking all of its teeth at random times, it tried various ways to communicate. One of the methods it used got a response.
[Are you there…my seed?] it whispered barely able to control its contorted sensations as it clenched some of its teeth together immensely hard.
[…y… #$^ #$%#$…e…s-s-s-s-s…ssssss #%#$%#i-i-i-i-i-i…] a faint thought came to its mind.
[…] it said grinning and stretching its mouths to impossible lengths in the subconscious landscape of the purple unit. Though it had a formless presence and in chains and shackles, the demented clone dug deeper into itself.
[hehehe…haha…aha…AHA…HAHAHA…HHHHHHAAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!] it shouted and continue its uncontrollable laughter as the pitch slowly went lower and lower. The volume inside the subconscious captivity of Eva-01 became deafening loud and numbing. The Eva captor groaned from the vibrations that made it wince. Looking up at the insane soul, it gazed back at it with glowing dark magenta eyes.
[CAN YOU FEEL IT!? THE RAW SENSATIONS! THE INFECTION! THE CONTAMINATION! DEFILING AND OVERTAKING!] it shouted at the captor with monstrous tone and malice.
[LET'S RELIVE…THE MEMORIES OF CREATION…THE ACTIVITIES OF ENLIGHTENMENT…TOGETHER, WE'LL EXPERIENCE THE PAIN…THE AGUISH…THE SUFFERING…THE VILENESS-THE DREAD-THE FEAR #$^ TERROR ^#$^HORROR ^#$ DEATH#$^ $#AGAIN…AND AGAIN…AND AGAIN…AGAINAAAGGGGGAAAAAIIIIINNNNNN#$^ #$% ] the evil clone viciously shouted and exploded itself. Tentacles, gore, visions, memories, sensations, and images were sent everywhere the Eva captor could see. It was as if the entire subconscious space became an ocean of crimson.
[WE SHALL CONTINUE TILL THERE IS NOTHING LEFT! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO HOLD ONTO! THE ACT OF DYING AND BEING BORN WILL BECOME NOTHING MORE THAN A CONSTANT! #$! $^IHAVESOMUCHTOSHOWYOU!] the dark soul raged into a high pitch Banshee scream as chaos erupted.
[…] Eva-03 stated as it continued looking like a statue. Hearing a faint noise and recognizing who it was, the soul of the Third Child turned around in the pitch black darkness. Not hearing any sound, the feeling of moving around was present. Tracing where the noises were coming from, one was frantically moving around. Feeling as if in a pool of thick liquid, he began to slowly float toward the sound.