Chapter
2
Duo looked hesitantly over his
shoulder as the portal closed behind him, refusing to gaze at the scene that he
knew lay before him. Suddenly Duo's face appeared in the screen he was
currently looking at to avoid looking at everything else.
"You'll have to look eventually, Duo." He said in a deadpan tone. Duo could tell by the way he was talking that it was a private link between them. Duo sighed deeply and finally turned his head, his jaw dropping at the sight presented before him. The sky was a blood red in color; the land around them was black, charred and lifeless. Here and there little sprouts of trees could be seen, but they were crooked and sparse, barely able to survive in their hostile environment. Before them lay a large city in absolute ruins. Buildings where torn in half, thrown on their sides, and slowly crumbling down in to oblivion.
"Holy Shinigami…" Duo was
finally able to gasp out. Wufei's face appeared on the screen.
He said in a rather cynical
tone, "One would think you'd feel right at home here, Maxwell." His slightly
appalled expression revealed his true feelings towards the world they had
landed on.
"Yeah…" Duo breathed, "One would think, ne?" He diverted his eyes and typed in a few things on his keyboard console. A few seconds later Captain Willis's report began to play through the speakers of the cockpit.
"Day One. We arrived in the reality and this place looks like a literal hell on earth. Whatever happened her had to be total and absolute for it to look like this…There's a city up ahead. It looks like its in ruins but it's worth checking for survivors. We're going to set up camp for the night-"
"Duo what are you doing?" Quatre asked over his intercom.
"Going over this report again. I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything." Duo told his comrades, hitting a few more buttons and bringing up a 3-D map of the city ahead of them, a place called Tokyo-3.
"Duo you've gone over that report five times all ready." Trowa complained rather uncharacteristically.
"I just want to make sure." Duo repeated, paying more attention to the report than to the other pilots. Once again Duo got the alert for an incoming message from Heero, except this time it came in text over his lower console.
Are
you sure you're all right with this, Duo?
Duo sighed deeply as the rest of the report played on behind him.
"…find survivors! Their names are Asuka Langley Soryu and Shinji Ikari…"
I'm
fine with this, Heero. I have to do this or else…
"…tell us that this world has suffered what they call a Third Impact. Apparently about fifteen years ago these creatures called 'Angels' came to Earth. The first one was Adam…"
Or
else what, Duo?
"…got angry and caused the Second Impact. The polar ice caps melted, the Earth flipped on it's axis, and half the population was killed. After that a project to make General-purpose Humanoid Decisive Combat Weapon - Artificial Human (Android) Evangelion's, or Evangelion's and EVA's for short to fight the Angels…"
Or
else I could never live with myself knowing that we just left these two to die
here…
"…these two were the pilots of Units Zero One and Zero Two. They said maybe three years ago the Third Impact happened, leaving them the only humans left alive on this planet…"
Understood.
"Let's move out." Heero finally said after what felt like an eternity of radio silence, "We head for Tokyo-3, retrieve the survivors, and get out before those things find us."
"Roger." Trowa said with an understanding nod.
"Right." Wufei echoed.
"Gotcha…" Duo said, his voice less than enthusiastic. The group of five mobile suits began to move towards the ruined city, having no idea of the three EVA units crouching behind the hill waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Back in the Tokyo-3 Ruins
"Shinji." Asuka said, looking out the window of a barely stable business building. Shinji just shifted on the ground next to her feet and grumbled something under his breath, pulling the tattered blankets over his face. Asuka glanced down at him with half a mind to kick him awake right then, but went for a little less direct approach, "Shinji you have to see this!" She hissed, shaking him roughly. Shinji groaned and rolled over on his side, covering his eyes with his arm.
"What
is it Asuka?" he grumbled unhappily.
"Get up you have to see
this!" Asuka cried out, actually showing some emotion other than depression.
Shinji pulled himself to his feet groggily, rubbing his eyes and walking
towards the broken window. When he saw what Asuka was so excited about his
brain kicked back in to gear and he found himself gaping at the sight.
Five brightly colored mobile suits, much, much larger then the ones sent before, were tromping towards the city, various weapons in hand.
"Wha…wha…what in the blazes are those things!" Shinji exclaimed with a tiny squeak of surprise in his voice.
"I…don't know." Asuka muttered, "They're mobile suits but they're huge! And those weapons…they look like…like robotic Evangelions!"
Shinji swallowed tensely and held the windowsill in a vice like grip.
"Do you think…they're from the reality?" he wondered allowed.
"There's only one way to find out!" Asuka suddenly cried out, running over to where she and Shinji had laid down pallets of blankets for them to sleep on and grabbing her shoes.
"Asuka are you insane! What if they're not one of them?" Shinij whined, wondering what had happened to suddenly bring back Asuka's reckless personality. She quickly slipped on her shoes and was heading for the door. She backtracked when she realized that Shinji wasn't following.
"Look out the window again." She pointed above the mobile suits this time, to a hill behind them. A flash of white told Shinji all he needed to know.
"EVA's!" He hissed, grabbing Asuka's arm, "Let's go! They need to be warned before it's too late!"
"That place looks like the City of the Dead…" Quatre mumbled under his breath as the neared the ruined city.
"What's that?" Duo asked curiously, trying to make conversation to momentarily take his mind off the mission.
"It's a place in Egypt. It's a fabled place where the souls of the dead gathered." Trowa explained as though he were giving a history lesson.
"Didn't pay much attention in Miss Relena's classes did you, Duo?" Quatre asked over the intercoms. Duo could tell the Arab was giving a tiny smirk at the memory of Duo snoozing while Relena lectured on history, pacifism, and other subjects that the Deathscythe pilot could care less about.
"I don't think I need to answer that question, Quat." Duo replied with a tiny grin of his own.
"Are you guys seeing this?" Wufei suddenly butted in to the friendly conversation.
"Seeing what?" Duo wondered.
"Look in your bottom left screen, you'll see what we're talking about." Heero responded. Duo brought up the screen and was surprised to see the auburn haired girl, Asuka, running towards the mobile suits with the dark haired boy, Shinji leading the way. Both of them were waving frantically at the five pilots and pointing behind them. Duo brought up the external microphone.
"Behind you! Look out behind you!" they were screaming. Before Duo even had a chance to turn around and look over his shoulder at the other monitor something very large and very powerful rammed in to the back of Deathscythe Hell, sending him and the Gundam pitching forward, out of control. Duo screamed as bells went off in his head and the cockpit around him flashed with red lights. He got his senses together before he completely hit the ground, Heero's yelling voice bringing him back to reality. He grabbed the controls and yanked up hard, bringing the Gundam back up to a somewhat standing position. It was then he noticed the added weight to the back of his Gundam and swiveled his head around to a giant white thing grinning at him from the back. His eyes went wide and his jaw opened in closed. His heart pounded against his chest, and for the first time ever Duo Maxwell could admit to feeling actual, paralyzing fear.
Quatre echoed his thoughts exactly when he cried out, "What in Allah's name is that thing?"
Shinji and Asuka watched in terror as an EVA unit leaped over the hill and clung to one of the mobile suit's back, gripping a piece of it's metal and trying to pry it off. The mobile suit resembled a huge bat-like creature, with huge black wings and a giant green glowing scythe for a weapon.
"K'so! We're too late!" Shinji cursed angrily, staring haplessly from the ground.
"You kids get out of here!" A deep, somewhat monotone voice called out from one of the mobile suits, "It's too dangerous to stay!"
The same mobile suit, one with humongous white metal wings and a giant double barreled gun of some kind, rushed to it's comrade's aid, grabbing the EVA unit from behind and trying desperately to pull it off.
Shinji grabbed Asuka's arm again and started tugging her along through the sparse forest back to Tokyo-3. Asuka ran with Shinji, looking over her shoulder at the struggling black mobile suit.
It's
just another group of failed soldiers…
Duo screamed in pain and tried desperately to shield his eyes as sparks flew from the console of his Gundam. That huge white monster was clawing at his Gundam, and he could hear the sound of Gundanium creaking against the strain. Heero was desperately trying to remove the thing, but was having difficulty seeing as the strange creature seemed to have claws or something that had a tight grip around the metal. Several others of the huge things had all ready engaged the other three Gundams, and it was only a matter of time before Heero would be attacked. Duo grabbed the controls despite the pain racking through his entire body and frantically tried to get his Gundam to move before it was too late…
Inside Wing ZERO Heero was pulling back as hard as he possibly could on the controls, straining every muscle in his body. The strange creature, an EVA unit if he recalled correctly, would not let its grip on Deathscythe HELL go. It gnashed at a section of the shoulder plate, baring its gigantic white teeth in to the metal and causing sparks to erupt from the Gundam like a fireworks display.
"Duo! Duo, are you still there? Answer!" Heero screamed in to his com, wishing he could get more back then just static.
Suddenly Heero's world went spinning when another EVA unit came out of nowhere and body slammed right in to ZERO. Warning lights flashed around him and he instinctively hit the boosters, making a very close save to him and his Gundam. Just as he looked up though a horrifying sight greeted him.
"DUO!"
A second after Wing ZERO had been knocked away by another EVA unit, Duo felt pain rush up and down his right arm and saw the screens in front of him get engulfed in blackness. He felt Deathscythe tilt forward, then plummet to the ground. He opened his mouth in a silent scream as his entire world came crashing down around him.
Asuka spun around when she saw the second EVA unit come rushing out from the surrounding hills and knock in to the mobile suit with the wings.
Oh no! her mind raced when she witnessed the other EVA bite down on the neck of the mobile suit and send it crashing to the ground, dangerously close to where she stood. She covered her eyes with her arms and braced herself for the impact. The Earth shook around her and a dust cloud as tall as the hills themselves was sent in her direction. She was able to stand her ground only for a few seconds as dust, dirt, debris and wind rushed around her. She was thrown backwards by the sheer force of it and landed about ten feet away from where she'd been standing before, flat on her face. Somewhere she heard Shinji scream but she couldn't pinpoint anything through the swirls of dust.
Asuka lay there on the ground, coughing and sputtering, the sounds of battle still ringing in her ears around her. Finally the dust settled and she could see the fallen mobile suit lying on its side before her. Sparks were flying from several places where the EVA had clawed and bitten, and the whole mid section of it had wires sticking out. Something was banging on what appeared to be a large doorway in the chest of the thing.
"Some one! Guys! Help! The door's stuck from inside!" a voice was calling out. Asuka scrambled to her feet, ignoring the pain surging through her right shoulder, and rushed over to the gigantic robot.
"We're a little busy, Duo!" Some one called from one of the other units that were currently engaged in battle. The banging on the door continued as Asuka approached.
"What do I have to do?" she called out, reaching out and finding the metal hot to the touch. She pulled her fingers back with a hiss of pain.
"Hu? Is some one out there?" the voice known as Duo called, adding a very ragged cough as he did so.
"Yes! What do I have to do?" Asuka replied.
"There's a red handle next to the door. Pull it as hard as you can!"
Asuka found the red handle with the words 'Emergency Release' written around it. She grabbed a hold of it, ignoring her burning hand, placed her foot up on the unit, and tugged as hard as she could. She cried out in surprise and stumbled backwards as the latch popped out and the door hissed open. She scrambled back to her feet and climbed up to the doorway, leaning in to see a young man with a long brown braid and kind, put pained violet eyes buckled in to a seat.
"Asuka Langley Soryu I presume?" He said with a shaky smile as he clutched his side.
"Yes, that's me." Asuka replied.
"Duo. Duo Maxwell. We've come to rescue you." He grunted, trying to unbuckle himself with a quavering hand. She gasped when she saw blood trickling over his fingers and reached in, fiddling with the lock and unclasping it. Duo fell sideways in the cockpit with a grunt and some how managed to pull himself to a sitting position.
That's when he got his first real look at the girl known as Asuka. She was very thin but once upon a time probably had a very good build. She was wearing a tattered blue tank top and very loose fitting blue jeans. Her auburn red hair went down to her hips and was slightly wild and messy. Her blue eyes, though, was what got him the most. There was something so familiar in them, but he couldn't quite place what it was.
Just then a crackling noise came over Duo's ruined com system.
"…out of here…use the beam Rifle." Heero's broken voice informed the group. Duo's eyes went wide and he grabbed Asuka's shoulder, roughly pushing her out of the cockpit.
"GET DOWN!" He screamed, throwing the two of them to the ground and covering Asuka's head with his body.
Once again the Earth was rocked as Heero Yuy pulled out his ultimate weapon, the Twin Buster Beam Rifle. He aimed for one EVA unit and pulled the trigger, sending out a huge shock wave when the energy collided with the being, evaporating it in to nothing. The rest of the EVA units quickly scattered to the hills, with missing limbs and ripped torsos.
Down on the ground Duo struggled to keep he and Asuka on the ground with the force of the shock wave rushing over them. Asuka was covering her head and praying in a language he didn't know, and he was just wishing it get over with. Something slashed through his right shoulder blade and Duo bucked in pain, accidentally letting his guard down and letting Asuka go. The two of them tumbled over the rough ground, propelled by the shockwave.
Asuka finally skidded to a halt, once again lying on her face, her entire body throbbing. She spat out a mouth full of dust and looked around frantically.
"Duo?" she called out, barely able to see through the swirling dust. She heard some one coughing violently behind her and threw her head around only to see Shinji staggering out of the dust cloud, holding his left arm that was incredibly swollen.
"Asuka, why'd you go back?" Shinji whined, trying to rub sweat and dirt away from his eyes with his good hand.
"He needed help…" Asuka said with a groan as she got to her feet, every muscle in her body protesting as she did so.
"Who?" Shinji asked the girl with an eyebrow raised in curiosity. Asuka ignored him, turning around and looking for something, "Asuka!" Shinji exclaimed when he saw her bleeding shoulder, "Asuka you're bleeding!"
"Duo!" She called out through the slowly settling dust, coughing as her lungs inhaled the debris floating around. Finally she could see a darkly clothed figure lifelessly sprawled out on the ground. Despite the pain in her shoulder she ran over to the body and flipped him over, finding Duo barely breathing. Long gashes on his right shoulder blade and his left side were oozing with blood, and a deep cut on his forehead was dripping red fluid in to his dark hair. The sound of a stomping mobile suit could be heard and she looked up to see the winged one standing above them. It got down on one knee in front of her. The cockpit door whooshed open and out stepped a slender young man with messy dark brown hair and narrowed Prussian blue eyes.
"Is he all right?" he asked in a emotionless monotone.
"I don't know." Asuka whimpered, looking from the serious pilot to the boy lying on the ground.
"Are you two all right?" the pilot asked when Shinji staggered up to Asuka.
"I think my arm is broken but other than that I'm fine." Shinji informed him.
"I…have a cut on my shoulder." Asuka said softly, "Are you really going to rescue us?"
"Hai. Trowa!" Heero called over his shoulder to another mobile suit. This time a somber blue and gray Gundam made it's way over to them. The cockpit door opened and a man with spiky brown bangs covering one of his emerald green eyes poked his head out, "I need you to take them." Heero said. Trowa nodded and returned to his seat, closing the door and maneuvering his Gundam to get down on one knee in front of Asuka, Shinji, and Duo, setting it's massive hand on the ground next to them.
"Can you pick him up?" Trowa's voice came over the loud speakers.
"I can try." Asuka said without much confidence. Pushing any thought of the cut on her shoulder to the back of her mind, she hoisted Duo up by his arms and dragged him on to the huge hand, Shinji following close behind.
"Lay down on your stomachs. That will make this easier." Trowa told the two of them once Duo was securely in the hand. Asuka and Shinji did as they were told, both flinching from various injuries, and the hand closed protectively around them. The mobile suit pulled upright and turned towards the direction they had come.
Heero maneuvered Wing ZERO around and tromped over to Deathscythe Hell, lifting the broken Gundam up.
"All right, Quatre, initiate the portal." Heero ordered. Asuka watched from the other Gundam's hand as a huge swirling mass of color suddenly came to life. Wing ZERO started up its vernier thrusters and disappeared with Deathscythe through the portal. Trowa waited until the rest of the team had gotten through before heading for the portal himself.
Asuka took one last look behind her at the ruins of Tokyo-3 and sighed deeply.
We're
saved…