Disclaimer: I am God and you will bow down for me! BWAHAHAHA. Ok, I'm not God but neither are

you so stop looking at me that way!

It should be obvious that I don't own NGE or anything affiliated with it as such. And if you

decide to sue me anyway, I have some words for you first: Hvis du er Dansker, så husk at dette

kun er rettet til folk der ønsker at sagsøge mig: "Sut min pik din lede varanpuler! Du kan falde

død om af en rigtig led sygdom med det samme. Du vil blive straffet som en slavedreng og revet

rundt til du ikke kan kende dit eget røvhul for bar ar. Jeg vil få dig til at bøde for dine

synder som det tåbelige væsen af flæsk du er! SLAVETØS! MØGDYR!"

And second of all I shall also set my beta-reader, Worldmage on to ya. "Sic 'em, they badmouthed

Asuka. They must pay!" *throws head back and laugh with evil glee, HAHAHAHA* That only goes for

people who wanna sue me for whatever dumb reason they should come up with, though. If you don't

speak Danish and want to know what that meant-- no way in hell I'm tellin' ya. Trust my word when

I say that: 'You don't want to know...'

A thank you to my faithful prereaders and my, as always, competent and patient beta-reader,

Worldmage; Read his fics, they're good!




The Swords of Evangelion: First Impressions, Part 2.


Waking was pain. But it seemed different from the usual: The bunk was softer, and there was not

as much light as there used to be. Misato opened her eyes and looked around the room she had been

given the day before. She sighed and lay back in bed. Luckily, she had drunk mead. It usually

only produced mild hangovers. And not the ones where she would get sick everytime she saw a meal.

A knock on the door. A voice. "Katsuragi-san? Are you awake yet?" It was that boy they had picked

up yesterday, what was his name-- Suzahara... Touji. That was it.

"I'll be right there, Touji," she called, as loud as she dared on account of her headache.

"Sure-- you want any breakfast?" he asked. Misato realized that she had not eaten any supper.

"Yes, please." She stood up slowly, letting her legs find their balance underneath her.

"Do you want me to wait?" Touji asked.

"No." She said, "just go on ahead." She groaned a bit when she opened the window, but fresh air

always made the hangovers better, so she just closed her eyes and enjoyed the silence.


Later that day, Misato suddenly called for a stop at another inn. They had been through a land

that had changed incredibly. From being ravaged by the Holy War they had prospered on producing

foodstuffs for the army that waged the war they had been victims of. Now the fertile land

blossomed once again and it seemed-- peaceful. Yet they still had a long way to go before they

reached their destination, so when Misato began to give an inn inspective glances, Shinji got

worried.

"Miss... Misato-san. Can't you wait until nightfall this time?" Shinji asked nervously.

"We are not stopping for a rest," Misato snapped. "We are stopping to collect a person from the

list."

"Sorry..." Shinji mumbled. Suddenly they heard a shriek. It sounded like nothing that could

emanate from a mortal being. Misato had her sword out in a flash. "Here" she called to Touji as

she drew a shortsword from her saddlebags and threw it to him. He caught it easily, but seemed a

bit perplexed as to what he was supposed to do.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" Misato yelled. "Buckle the sword belt on and draw the sword.

We can't have you defenseless if there's a monster."

Shinji just sighed and drew his longsword. It was a sword Misato had taken from a northman she

had killed in combat. A fine weapon it was, with two cutting edges and perfect balance. Misato

had said that such swords were worth the lives of many men where it came from. Almost nothing

could break it, and it would cut through almost any armor like fire eating through straw.

Suddenly Shinji was torn out of his reverie as the door to the inn was smashed off its hinges by

the flight of a full-grown man through the doorframe. A furious redhead, who seemed bent on

punishing him for some reason or other stalked the man, who now laid crumpled at the base of a

water trough. "BAKAYAROU! YOU WILL PAY DEARLY FOR THAT YOU... YOU... YOU... MALE! FILTHY HUMAN!"

She shrieked as she kicked the man and pummeled him with a broomstick.

"Oh, no..." Misato groaned. Shinji shook his head and muttered something in elvish under his

breath.

Touji did not comprehend. "What? Is there something wrong?"

Shinji nodded and pointed to the redhead.

She's a real piece of work. Touji thought. Like a fine sculpture; everything about her was

wellproportioned. She was every bit as beautiful as Misato, if not moreso. "I don't see anything

wrong with her." Touji remarked dryly.

Misato sighed and turned to look at Touji. "Look closely, you'll see pointy ears jutting up from

within her hair. And if you were close enough, you'd also notice her incisors when she opens her

mouth."

Touji squinted as he looked carefully at the red-head. "She's an elf!" he exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes," Misato said, "a western elf-- that means that she's totally different from any elf you

might have encountered. It's amazing to find one here, even moreso because she's on the list."

Shinji groaned in obvious dismay.

"Western elves are way more hostile and aggressive than other elves." Misato noted dryly. "It

comes with the size, they make up for their lack of intelligence with their brawn and size." She

gave a little chuckle. "That's what an eastern elf would tell you anyway." She grinned. "But

apart from the obvious physical differences, western elves rely on a matriarchal form of

government, as opposed to the strichtly patriarchal one of their eastern counterparts and the

women of the western elves tend to be taller and stronger than those of the eastern elves. The

men are shorter than the womenfolk, but not always weaker. The magical gifts of the western elves

are also weaker than those of their eastern cousins." She finished her lecture with a grin and a

look at Shinji. "The two races seem to have an extreme dislike of each other."

Shinji merely looked away and mumbled: "...Sorry."

Misato sighed as she turned her horse around and started heading for the inn. "Stay here and

don't do anything stupid!" She rode the short distance to the inn where the redhead had

reentered after leaving the pummeled and bleeding man lying on the ground.


"Sohryu Asuka Langley?" Misato asked as she tapped the shoulder of the redhaired elven female.

"It's Asuka Langley Sohryu!" The elf snarled as she whipped around "And what do you want--

human?"

Misato groaned inwardly. This was going to be a tough one. "The high clergy of Adam and Eva

requires your coorperation. Will you follow peacefully?" Asuka gave Misato a look that was not

far from being physically damaging, if not deadly.

"Drop dead, human," Asuka growled as she turned around once more and began to walk away. But

Misato was not going to let her go _that_ easily.


The sound of shrieking and smashing crockery was clearly heard, even from the distance of

onehundred metres away from the inn. Then-- silence. Shortly thereafter, Misato exited with the

redhaired elf slung over her shoulders. She motioned for Shinji to drive the wagon over where she

stood. She easily dumped the unconscious elf next to Touji's little sister. "Gentlemen, meet

Sohryu Asuka Langley. The next candidate in the list." She said venomously as she mounted her

horse again. As an afterthought she reached down into her saddlebags and produced some chains

which she dumped in the back of the wagon. "Bind her with these, just in case she wakes up."

Touji looked at the slender elven maid and the thick iron chains. "Isn't this overdoing it?" he

asked.

Misato gave him an imperious look and said once again; "Bind her, before she wakes up." Touji

sighed and did what Misato had told him to do.


"Ach, Scheisse... mein Kopf. Es schmertzt!" She opened her eyes carefully and looked around. She

could feel that she was in motion-- a wagon of some sorts. She looked around. A seemingly

catatonic child lay next to her. Two men sat up front, backs turned to her. That woman rode next

to them. Asuka tried bringing her hands up to rub her jaw. It was then that she noticed the bonds

around her wrist.

She cursed softly under her breath. It would seem that she had no other options left than to

accept her defeat and find out how to best utilize the present circumstances to her advantage.

That was what she had been taught in the army-- just before her desertion. Killing humans and

those weakly cousins of hers brought little joy or excitement into her life. So she had started

touring as a bard. She enjoyed music, and making a living from it was... for a lack of other

words, pleasant. She hoped that the human wench had been gifted with enough sense as to bring her

possesions and her horse. If not-- they could always be brought.

She had a bond with the horse, far beyond what normal owners had with their pets. Just to make

sure, she summoned it. The beast would now locate her tracks and find her. It was an elven horse,

she had established a magical bond with it from its birth and so she was able to communicate

mentally with it, even across great distances.

"Good morning, Mistress Sohryu. I trust the ride was pleasant." The human wench spoke in a mock

sweet tone. Asuka knew how to play that game just as well as anyone.

"Aye, 'twas well. Although the bedding was a bit hard." She gave Shinji a predatory look. "Pray,

next time, make one of the males assist me in finding such comfort." She smiled invitingly at

Shinji, who turned red all over. The half-elf will probably be the easiest to kill. He has a

weak will; no spine at all, Asuka thought with glee. Weaklings... this is all too easy. I'll

let the girl and the other male live to tell the tale.

Suddenly, the wagon lurched as something smashed into it.

Asuka snapped her head around to see a massive cloaked and hooded figure. She suddenly had a

flash of memory from her distant childhood-- tales that the elders had told to scare the children

and to pass on knowledge of their past. "Lucifer...," She breathed as she beheld the awesome

being. Shinji and Misato yelled, Touji froze and so did Asuka. The thing turned its hooded head

and eyes glowed from within the dark, bottomless depths. "Help me!" Asuka screamed as she saw

those terrible eyes gaze upon her, boring into her, snatching secrets from her past. She wanted

to avert her face, but could not. She saw the eyes narrow as a twohanded sword materialized in

the hands of the cloaked one. She remembered all the tales of her childhood now, all the ancient lore

she had memorized for her tutors and then forgotten: the dark ones, the exile... she gasped in

wordless terror as the being raised the massive blade to strike at her.

There was a flash of light on steel, and the sound of a sword sliding through flesh. She looked

up and saw: The weak-looking half-elf standing over her. His longsword buried in the creature.

Its eyes had widened in surprise as it looked upon the blade. It seemed to mutter an oath in a

unholy language, then it faded from sight.

Shinji's normally placid face was locked into an almost unreconizable grimace. Asuka had

witnessed such people in her homeland in the north... "Berserker," she mumbled.

Shinji lowered the sword, which slipped from his seemingly numb hands. He gave Asuka and the

others a blank stare as he returned to his seat at the front of the wagon.

"Shinji?" Misato was worried. He had never acted that way before.

"Let him be," Asuka said sternly.

"Shut your mouth, you pointy-eared creep!" Misato growled dangerously, but Asuka ignored this.

"I have seen such things before. He appears to be what my people label as a 'berseker'." Misato

paled noticably. Asuka found a little comfort in that.

"Do you mind sharing that secret with me?" Touji said sarcastically. Asuka shifted uncomfortably

in her bonds.

"Would you mind taking these off?" Asuka asked, Misato snorted derisively. "Listen, wench! I am

currently the only one here who know how to deal with the half-elf's present situation. He needs

to be tended to, as soon as possible!" Asuka looked over to where Shinji sat, seemingly as

catatonic as Touji's sister. "Besides," she said softly. "He saved my life. I am indebted to him

now. I give you my word of honor upon this, human. I will not leave his side untill he is slain by

enemies, or my debt repaid in full." She looked Misato straight in the eyes. Misato deliberated

for a moment, then decided that she had nothing to lose. She nodded to Touji and threw him the

keys to the chains, moments after Asuka was released. She rubbed her sore wrists and then started

to tend Shinji.

"I still know what's going on." Touji said in exasperation.

"I'll tell you the tales. Later, when we stop." Asuka hoisted Shinji up in her arms easily, armor

and all and put him gently down on the bottom of the wagon where she had been lying moments ago.

Touji was impressed with her strength, Misato even moreso, Asuka merely smiled, showing off her

incisors in an evil grin as she kneeled to look after the unconscious half-elf.


Shinji was lying in darkness. He saw nothing, felt nothing. Suddenly he heard a voice singing...

a soothing bittersweet song. Almost like those elven lullabies his mother had sung to him as an

infant. It was beautiful, calling him back to consciousness along with a burning sensation that

was spreading throughout his entire being, becoming a gentle warmth as it dissipated.

Suddenly he was awake. He saw the red-head sitting with a stringed instument of sorts, singing

in some western tongue, although not the one she had spoken in earlier. But it was still lovely.

It had been her voice that brought him back to consciousness. He suddenly realized how much she

looked like an angel. The sun hit her fiery red hair setting it ablaze like a halo of flame as

it gently caressed her fair skin and reflected in the deep, clear pools of her crystal blue eyes.

She turned her head and looked at him, smiling. "So, the warrior awakens." She stood up. "Good,

now I can rest."

Shinji looked at her. "Did you-- did you tend to me?" He asked timidly.

She grinned. "Yes I have. But now you're awake and I must eat." She turned around and wakled out

of the room.

"Thank you," Shinji said. She turned in the doorway and gave him a smile that made his heart

suddenly beat faster.

"Maybe later." She purred. Then she left.


Out on the dark hallway Asuka wiped the fake smile off her face. A berserker-- that should pose

an interesting challenge. She thought as she made her way towards the common room. It matters

little, he cannot hope to best ME. But nonetheless he shall be worthy enterntainment. The

menacing grin she had shown Misato and Touji earlier that day came out in full once again as she

flicked her hair over one shoulder. A habit she had acquired over the years. But he will pay for

your death, mother. As all of them must. If not the half-elf's mother, then the half-elf shall

atone for her sins. Her grin turned into a grimace as she suddenly lost her appetite. But he

saved my life...no, that was the battle-rage. He had nothing to do with it. And besides, that

debt is an intirely different account. She went to the bedroom that had she had paid for out of

her own purse instead of going to the common room, she had, as said, lost her appetite. "More

nightmares will come to me now..." she muttered as she threw herself on the bed in the dark,

cold room.


Ikari Gendo, high priest of Adam, sat by his scrying device, poring over the attack that had

transpired. "Odd," remarked Lord Fuyutski, "that doesn't seem to fit the plans SEELE had laid out

for us."

Gendo folded his hands in front of him and rested his chin on them. "Yes," he stated. "This is

premature. They must sense something."

Fuyutski sighed and got up from his chair. "What shall I tell the old men?"

Gendo grinned. "Tell them that I am delayed by... matters of the church."

"As you wish, your holiness." Fuyutski bowed, then turned and left the room.

"I thought that he'd never leave." This was a feminine voice. A blonde woman faded into view

behind Gendo. She wrapped her arms around his chest from behind. "Madame Akagi," Gendo muttered.

"Would you join me for-- dinner?" The high priestess of Lilith grinned lecherously as she walked

around Gendo's chair and straddled his lap.

"I have something quite... different in mind." She purred as she kissed her lover. She gestured

with her free hand to form a simple spell.


Fuyutski heard the click of the lock in the door to Ikari's office and shook his head. "Play with

fire and you'll get burned, Ikari," he muttered as he made his way to appear before the council

of eldely magicians known as SEELE.




Author's note: First a little note on the German words used, the direct translation is: Oh, shit! My head

hurts. And Asuka's use of the archaic (archaic according to my beta-reader, Worldmage) word

'wench' IS intended as very insulting. So if some of you didn't know what wench meant then

you've learned somthing today. ^_^

Ahh, so Ritsuko and Asuka have made their appearences. Who comes next, you wonder?

You'll just have to read the next episode to find out. ^_^ And WHAT was that mysterious thing?

Answers to this and more, on the next episode of the Swords of Evangelion.