Neon Genesis: Evangelion

Neon Genesis: Evangelion

Genesis: 0:20: Sadness Unto Unknown And…

[A/N: Yes! Kasumi's brother is Kaoru! She is indeed the sister of an Angel!]

[Disclaimer: I don't own.]

Shinji sat calmly in a chair, listening to his SDAT player. It was 9:59, and the girls were due back in one minute. Well, all the human girls anyway. His blue-black eyes narrowed as twin images of Kasumi and Kaoru flashed through his head. "At least, not until you go out on a date." Asuka's words replayed through his mind over and over; they wouldn't stop.

"Hey, Kasumi! Shinji! We're back!" Asuka called, opening the door. Shinji remained still, listening to the music pouring out from his SDAT player. "Hey!" Asuka called again, "Baka Shinji! Where's Kasumi?" Popping the earphones from his ears, Shinji replied, "I don't know where she is, and I don't CARE!" Asuka jumped at Shinji's shout, and then realized what he said.

"WHAT'D YA MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE KASUMI IS?!" the hell-haired girl shouted, poking Shinji in the chest, "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE WATCHING HER!" "YEAH, WELL I DON'T CARE WHERE THE HELL SHE WENT TO!" Shinji shouted, shoving Asuka backwards. The Second Child fell to the floor with a thud and looked up at the Third Child in shock.

"Hey, we heard shouting." Ritsuko said through the door, "What's going on?" Rei walked to the door and opened it, letting Misato and Ritsuko into the room. "Baka Shinji lost Kasumi!" Asuka snapped, "And he just shoved me!" "Shinji, what's going on?" Misato questioned, "Where's Kasumi?" "I don't know, and I don't care." Shinji replied once more.

Kasumi let her legs dangle over the edge of the catwalk, staring down at the coolant that awaited the arrival of the Evangelions. Her face was streaked with tears, but she was silent, and the tears gone. It was mostly dark in the NERV containment chamber, but there was an eerie glow coming from the maroon coolant.

It was the middle of the night, and she was once again unable to sleep. At that moment, nothing much could put Kasumi at ease, or feel any better. She only wanted to be by her Eva. The thing that would accept her…

Asuka stared up at the ceiling, almost on the verge of sleep. Shinji had acted in the strangest way… She frowned. Her plan was working so perfectly, and now this. She rolled over onto her side and slipped into the warm comforting arms of sleep.

Shinji lay on his back, staring at the ceiling. Misato and Ritsuko had chewed him out for Kasumi running away. "Is it my fault that that bitch ran away?" he whispered into the darkness. "Is it, Pilot Ikari?" a soft voice asked in reply. Shinji sat up slowly to see Rei standing in the doorway that connected the other rooms. "What?" he asked.

"Is it really your fault that Pilot Shiro left?" Rei continued to question, "Or did she merely leave without warning?" "It isn't any of your business." Shinji growled, "She just…left." "In her condition, I would think it would be very difficult for Pilot Shiro to…'run away'." Rei murmured, "Why did she leave?" "It isn't any of your business." Shinji repeated. Rei's eyes stared at Shinji, delving deep into him. "You seem to be angry at her." she said, "Why?" Shinji merely looked away, glaring at the window.

"Did she say something?" Rei didn't relent in her questioning, "Or do something? Or is it something else?" Shinji pulled his gaze away from the window to look at Rei. Her blood red eyes made his anger flare up once more, but her calm tone and voice made that rage sink down. "From what I've seen in the past few weeks, and what Pilot Sorhyu has told me, you and Pilot Shiro were…in a…relationship as Major Katsuragi put it."

"Well, she told you wrong then." Shinji said angrily, "We weren't in a relationship. Who said I even liked her?" "The way…the way you look at her." Rei said slowly, as if she were trying to understand it herself, "The way you look when you think about her. It is evident in both aspects." "Don't try to tell me that I ogled after that bitch!" Shinji hissed, "I hate her, and I don't care where she ran off to!"

"Why?" Rei asked, "Why do you hate Pilot Shiro?" "You wouldn't understand, Rei." Ikari said shortly, "It's something you just wouldn't get." "If you tell me, I might be able to comprehend why you distain Pilot Shiro." Rei continued to badger him, "Did she say something to insult you? Or is it something she told you?"

The blue-haired girl slowly walked towards the bed and stared at Shinji. "Or is it something she told you about herself?" she said her question another way, "Something she told you about her past, about her life. Is it that?" Shinji sat up slowly. Rei had just hit home with her inquisition.

"Look, you just wouldn't get it if I told you." he said, drawing his knees to his chest and looking to the floor, "I just hate her." "If it is something about her past, perhaps you should look past it." Rei's voice sounded slightly distant, "Sometimes, the worst people are created from hanging on things from the past." Shinji let out a low gasp of confusion and shock and looked up, but Rei had left, and the door slowly clicked shut.

Kasumi rocked back and forth, teetering on the edge of the catwalk, staring down at the coolant. It would only be a few more hours till her Evangelion would arrive. Just a little while longer. Suddenly, the sound of a footstep brought the distraught pilot from her thoughts. She froze.

Ritsuko was jolted out of a restful sleep a few hours before schedule when the phone rang with a vengeance. "Dr. Akagi." she grumbled as she picked up the receiver.

"WHAT?!" the Eva pilots were shocked out of sleep as a shout breeched the sanctity of their rooms. They leapt from their beds and headed towards Misato and Ritsuko's room.

"Yes ma'am!" the person on the other end said, "A guard was going around on his duties when he came across one of the pilots!" "Then what?" Ritsuko snapped, "Where is she?" "Well…" the person began.

Kasumi slowly walked into the containment chamber once more, walking to the edge of the catwalk and sitting down. She lent forward, holding the handle tight and catching her breath. She had lost the guard that had been steadily chasing her for the past ten minutes. Kasumi narrowed her eyes at the guard's pushiness. She hated him, them…humans.

"What'd you mean you lost her?!" Ritsuko shouted, "I thought your guards were supposed to be some of the quickest!" "Well—she's quick!" the man protested, "We have no clue where the pilot is, and we've got readings that that Angel thing you warned us about is only about one-hundred-twenty miles away!" "WHAT?!" Ritsuko shouted.

"The Evangelion units will be here in about thirty minutes!" the man said, "The UN Superjets were assigned to bring them here, so—" "Shut up and make sure your systems are ready to launch the Evas!" Ritsuko snapped, "We'll be there in ten minutes or so!" At that, she slammed the phone down onto its holder and turned to the pilots. "Get ready!" she shouted.

Ritsuko gripped the steering wheel of the car tightly, angry beyond belief at the events of the past few hours. Misato glanced warily sideways at her friend. It was dangerous to talk to Ritsuko when she was angry. Even more so if she was angry about something going wrong.

Fifteen minutes after Ritsuko and the others had arrived, the Evangelions arrived as well.

"All right, so what's our plan here?" Asuka questioned from the plug. "Well, the main thing is that we've scanned the underground and found a large underground cavern." Misato relayed, "We're going to have you lure the Angel there and then destroy it." "Pretty easy once you think about it." Asuka smirked. "You never know." Ritsuko said in a calm tone, "It may take four Evas to destroy it." Shinji narrowed his eyes at the sentence. Ritsuko was trying to change his mind.

Kasumi hid in the darkness of the cage, staring at the black face of unit-14. She had heard the technicians that set up the containment chamber. The Angel was close; very close. But she didn't reveal herself; she refused.

"All right, Eva launch!" Misato ordered. The Evangelion units activated and headed towards the cavern, using the specially formulated battery packs that the U.S. was testing. They were supposed to last about an hour a piece for the two packs.

The Angel paused, then shifted in the dirt. Its enemy was close. A horrible chuckle emerged from the creature's gaping maw and it turned away from the line it was forming to head towards the enemies.

The shifting ground rumbled beneath the Evas' feet, and then a wall cracked and shattered, revealing the Angel. It was gigantic, long and muscular like a snake, but with pincers like some type of insect. Its maroon core was placed just beneath its mouth, and a small indentation was just beneath it.

"Oh, we're gonna have fun!" Asuka laughed, holding out the word 'fun'. At her mental command, the shoulder of her right arm snapped open, a Progressive Knife falling into place. The Second Child grasped it tightly, and then rushed at the Angel. She stabbed at the core with deadly accuracy and strength, and the blade sank easily into it.

"What the?" Misato wondered. She and Ritsuko stared at the Angel's frozen state, and the ease of Asuka's victory.

Kasumi chuckled low, and then bent double, placing her hand over her face. "My God, I can't believe that they think it's over." she laughed, "What idiocy!" Kasumi shook with heartless laughter, burying her face in her hand.

Suddenly, the Angel's core flexed and warped, and then healed. It closed around the Prog Knife, and the Angel reared back, wrenching the weapon from unit-02's hand. Asuka gasped as the shadows increased as the Angel drew over her. It collapsed around her, crushing the Eva unit and Asuka in turn. As her bones cricked and cracked in protest, Asuka let out a anguish-filled scream.

Kasumi slowly stopped laughing, her vocal cords beginning to snap shut in protest of air loss. She hiccupped, and placed her head in her hands on her knees. "God, what's wrong with me?" she said slowly, "I'm not supposed to be concerned about…humans, am I?" Kasumi tilted her head up and narrowed her eyes in thought. "Isn't that why you put me here?" she whispered, "Isn't that the reason, God?"

The Angel flung the limp unit-02 against the wall, ignoring it as it slid to the ground. It slithered towards the two other Evas, focusing on Rei. With a ear-wrenching screech, it lurched forwards and caught the Eva between its pincers. Rei grit her teeth and tried desperately to pull the Angel's mandibles apart. But instead the Angel began to crush her with a deadly fierceness, bending and popping her bones like Asuka's.

Kasumi groaned in pain as something pounded inside her skull, tearing through her mind. "Make it stop!" she whispered desperately, "Please, God! Brother! Make it stop!"

Finally, Shinji reacted to the sudden carnage that he had come to know so well. He commanded the Evangelion to release the Prog Knife, and grasped the weapon. He ran forwards with a roar, ready to release his anger upon the thing he hated most.

Very swiftly, unit-01 rushed the Angel and stabbed at the core. It broke through the maroon thing, but it healed. Shinji jerked away before the Angel could trap him, and slashed at the core again. Again, the Angel healed, but Shinji leapt away. The Angel lurched forwards and tried to catch Shinji, but he leapt into the air. Grinning from the small victory, Shinji ignored the Angel.

"Shinji!" Misato shouted, "Watch it!"

Shinji looked up to see the trap he had fallen into. The Angel's tail wrapped around him and slammed him against the wall. He felt the pain stronger than ever, and then the Angel beat him against the ground. Once that was done, the Angel began a rhythm, beating him against the floor and wall, bringing phenomenal pain to the pilot.

Finally, Shinji blacked out, and the Angel let him go. It slithered back through the hole it had created before, and vanished into the dirt.

"Get a crew down there!" Misato ordered, "Retrieve the Evas and their pilots immediately!"

Kasumi finally looked up from her hands with a gasp, tiny beads of sweat flying from her cold face. She lowered her head slightly with a pained smile. "So…it isn't my choice?" she whispered, "I have to do this?" She let a tear slide down her face. "Fine." Kasumi said, "I'll do what you say, brother. I'll do it, even though you say I don't." She stood up from the darkened cage catwalk and started off.

Misato rested her head on her meshed hands, hoping for the best report. Ritsuko came down the hall, her feet tapping against the hard tiled floor of the hospital. "How are they?" the Major asked meekly. "Well, all of them seem to have a few dislocated joints and some bruises." Ritsuko replied, "But other than that, they're all fine." "In the meantime…" Misato murmured.

"The fight gave us about twenty more minutes." Ritsuko answered, "But the Angel has accelerated the speed of its digging. So basically we have about an hour before it gets here." "Joy." Misato said sarcastically.

It was dark. Kasumi remained still, unmoving. And then, she twitched. At the sudden movement, the Evangelion's entry plug lit up with normal light, the nerve connections showing the containment chamber.

Misato stared up at the screen of the control center. She disliked having to work here, without Makoto or Maya or Shigeru. It was just too weird. She reached down and tapped a key over a technician's shoulder and a com. link to the chamber of unit-14 flashed onto the gigantic screen. "Just thirty minutes to find Kasumi and get her down here." the Major said softly. The twenty-nine-year-old woman became so transfixed upon the Eva's dark face that she didn't hear the technician's murmur of confusion.

"Ma'am?" the young man said somewhat frantically, "Ma'am, we've got a situation!" "What?" Misato jerked out of her stupor, "What's the problem?" "Well, it looks like that unit-14 has activated!" the technician said, "There's someone in the entry plug!"

"WHAT?!" Misato immediately shouted. Shoving the man aside, the Major slammed her fist upon another key. The link-screen showing unit-14 crackled for a moment, and then showed Misato who was inside the plug.

"Kasumi?" she asked slowly, nearly disbelieving what her eyes told her. Suddenly, she was angry.

"KASUMI, WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!" she shouted, "WE WERE SCARED HALF TO DEATH WHEN YOU WEREN'T BACK AT THE HOTEL! RITSUKO AND I SPECIFICALLY ORDERED YOU NOT TO MOVE! WHAT IN THE HELL WERE YOU—" "Be quiet." Kasumi suddenly interrupted the Major in mid-rant, "Just shut up and give me the details." Misato reared back in shock at the calmness of Kasumi's words, but the fierceness hidden in them.

"Be grateful I even decided to come back." the Sixth Child said, "I didn't come back because I wanted. I…I just had to!" Her expression turned angry at those last few words, and then the connection broke off. Misato stared at the screen for a while, and then sighed angrily.

Kasumi closed the link quickly, fearing some sort of emotional outburst. Again, her heart began to pound with fear. Something was wrong with this, horribly wrong. But what? Her synchronization score was perfect, what did she have to fear? Kasumi slowly curled into a ball, hugging her shins to her chest, shivering and breathing hard.

"No data?" Misato asked. "Yes, unfortunately." Ritsuko replied, "We have nothing on this new Angel. Kasumi will have to improvise." The two were silent for a moment, and then Misato spoke up, "Well, I had better make sure the pilots are OK. I'll see you…later." With that, Misato slowly began to walk down the hall. As she passed by her old friend, Ritsuko seized her arm gently.

"Misato…don't tell Shinji that Kasumi is here." the doctor murmured, "It'll only cause trouble." Misato looked at Ritsuko, but then nodded solemnly and began to walk again.

Twenty-five minutes later, the quickly formed plan was put into effect.

"We've found an old subway track that leads almost directly to where the Angel is." Ritsuko reviewed, "Now, the umbilical cable will again be useless, but the battery packs seem to prove useful. Kasumi, we want you to lure it out of the underground to the abandoned part of what used to be Las Vegas. Is that good?" Kasumi nodded, but didn't look up. "OK!" Misato said, "Eva launch!"

The battery packs clicked on and Kasumi rushed from the cavernous chamber that led to the surface.

The Angel paused in its digging and its completely black eyes looked up towards the surface ground. It chuckled darkly, and traced the line of something up top.

"You're coming up on the subway!" Misato said through an audio com. link; Kasumi wouldn't allow a visual. "Get ready!" Ritsuko ordered. Kasumi nodded shortly again. Suddenly, the ground rumbled and shook.

"Blue pattern!" a frantic technician shouted, "Beneath the Eva!" The technician had hardly finished her sentence when the ground underneath unit-14 broke apart and shattered. The Evangelion was tossed into the air with the bedrock fragments and then slowly began to fall back to the broken earth. The Angel was eagerly awaiting Kasumi.

"Look out!" Misato shouted. Unit-14 twisted around and stared down at the Angel. Its pincer jaws opened wide to bite the Eva in half, but at the last second, Kasumi jerked her body roughly to one side, and the Evangelion followed. It fell straight at one of the pincers, and with a flash, it had drawn the Prog Sword and cut through the hard material.

The gigantic pincer fell to the earth, the Angel rearing back in pain. It looked as if it were screaming. Kasumi cupped her ears in pain as the Angel's scream reverberated through her ears; she was the only one that could hear it.

"Witch!" the Angel growled in a hissing tone, "How dare you!" It pulled back, and launched its body at the bio-weapon. Barely able to react quickly enough with her hands around her ears, Kasumi rushed to grab the metallic handles that connected her hands and drew the Prog Knife. The Eva held the twin glowing weapons before it, desperately holding the Angel back.

Kasumi's hands shook within the entry plug as she struggled to hold the Angel. But she forgot about its remaining pincer. The Angel laughed through its burning mouth and brought its pincer through the air. The sharp appendage stabbed into unit-14's head, throwing pilot and Evangelion alike to the side.

Kasumi shouted in pain as she hit the ground, her visual systems showing static for a moment. Blood dripped down behind her ear as the puncture appeared. She rolled over and leapt to her feet, looking for the Angel. As the visual system came back online, she had no time to dodge as the Angel slammed into her.

"The pilot's synchronization level!" another technician said, "It's rising rapidly!" Ritsuko looked over the man's shoulder to glance at the screen. Her green eyes widened and shrank at the same time. Kasumi's score was increasing ten percent every few seconds. Ritsuko was confused. But then it slammed into her from the back of her mind. "EJECT THE ENTRY PLUG NOW!" she shouted.

"We can't!" the female technician cried, "All signals are being blocked! Pulses are flowing backwards!" Misato and Ritsuko had heard these words too many times; they knew what they meant. "Oh no…" Misato whispered.

Kasumi held off the single pincer the Angel had with one hand while pushing its mouth away with the other. It felt like her arms were on fire. She grit her teeth and pushed her head against the entry plug seat, praying to anyone that might hear her. Suddenly, a sound like the pound of a drum. Her closed eyes flew open, and the sound slowly repeated. The sound grew louder and faster, quicker and quicker, until Kasumi finally realized what it was. Her heart.

Misato and Ritsuko tried desperately to open a visual link to unit-14's entry plug, but were unable. As they opened an audio link, they froze in terror. The last thing the women heard at that moment was Kasumi's anguished scream of horrible pain.

Kasumi released the handles in the entry plug, bringing them up to look at them. Her entire body was wracked with pain. Suddenly, something happened. "HELP!!" she screamed, "PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP!! MAKE IT STOP!!"

"KASUMI!" Misato shouted. The Evangelion had fallen silent, and the Angel was moving in for the kill. With a screech it lurched forwards, pincer ready to tear the bio-weapon and pilot apart.

Kasumi tilted her head back and let out a pain-filled scream that was cut short.

With movements faster than anyone could calculate, the Evangelion's hand caught the Angel's pincer and broken it in half. The Angel screamed in pain, but before it could move, the Evangelion was on top of it. The smoke-black Evangelion held the Angel down with immeasurable strength, but then the huge bio-weapon shuddered and bent low. Plates of armor cracked and shattered from the Evangelion and its mouth slid open. The Evangelion's eyes gleamed blood red as it opened its mouth to reveal horrible sharp teeth.

Clawed hands clenched into the Angel's flesh and it let out a screech. The Evangelion laughed; all could hear it. It was a deep, throaty laugh that had a second voice echoing it. It sounded worse than an Angel's scream.

Ritsuko and Misato watched in mesmerized horror as their worst nightmare replayed in front of them. But this time, it was even worse.

The Angel had no chance to move before the Evangelion dove down and bit into its core. The Evangelion wrenched the piece of core from the Angel and chewed, swallowed. After that first 'bite', the Evangelion dove back in, red blood spurting in horrible fountains like geysers from broken veins and arteries.

Misato's brown eyes widened as another one of her 'children' was subjected to the horrible price that came with an incredibly high sync ratio. The Evangelion ate the Angel gruesomely, picking tissue from the bones. Finally, the Evangelion was finished with its horrifying meal, and stood on its feet. It let its head fall back and let out a howling laugh. Humanlike red eyes gleamed with what little light was left.

The sun had fallen. Everything was silent. Nothing could be heard but the chirping of the cicadas and crickets. Blood splattered Evangelion-14 from head to toe, and its terrifying grin was frozen on its face. And so, the world was quiet in that moment.

"…And so begins the end."