DreyonLegacy et al is proud to present: The Author's Pre-Chapter Ramble!

Today's topic is: um…uh…never mind. No topic. If it had a topic it wouldn't be rambling.

Anyway, I'm getting an ominous feeling that something bad is going to happen to Lilliko. Not bad like the situation she's in, but one that will possibly destroy her, and Takoru's, chances at happiness.

Layra-chan: wait a minute, et al? You listed me as a simple 'other?' How could you…

DreyonLegacy: um, that's it for the pre-chapter ramble. Tune in next time…once I recover from my injuries…

Disclaimer: DreyonLegacy et al is not so proud to present: the Long List of Things that I do not own: 1): My soul. 2): My house…34,536): Neon Genesis Evangelion. 34,537): the UN. 34,538): The SSDF. 34,539) The letter A…

Fourth Impact

Chapter 48: Convergence, part 2         

Ariline came upon the burning sticks after Dai-syo and Samantha had gone to sleep. She watched them for a long while, contemplating what they had said over the months that she'd known them. Tomorrow, everything would change. Either they would emerge victorious, and mankind's evolution would be upon them, changing their bodies and maybe even their minds, or they would fail, and die. Ariline wasn't too comfortable with either outcome.

If they won, Unit 16 would die. Ariline felt her heart wrench at the thought. Her truest friend, her most loyal companion, would die if they succeeded.

If they lost, Ariline and Unit 16 had a good chance at escaping, but then her other two friends would die. Her only other friends. No matter what happened, she was going to lose someone.

She thought over what Samantha had said the night before, about Dai-syo and her. Dai-syo was rather blind. So was she. Only Samantha, who had grown up on bad soap operas and cheesy romances, had any real clue what was going on. She was the most knowledgeable in more ways than one. She was the most equipped to live independently, the most informed of the Chosen, she had met all of them, and she even knew who her parents were. That was something Ariline was sure few of the Chosen could boast about. She didn't know, Dai-syo didn't know, and Samantha had told them that at least three others were clueless.

Perhaps she had lied to Samantha. She was pretty good-looking…Ariline shook her head with a smile. Nerves. That's all it was. Given the import of the situation, even Dai-syo was beginning to look attractive to her. Not that he wasn't handsome, but she'd never…

And then there was Unit 16. Ariline giggled at the thought of her Eva as a human. The poor thing, she'd probably die of mortification at being found in such a frail body.

Die. Ariline instantly regretted her last thought. Death was not something she wanted to think about.

She finally took one last stick and placed it a bit away from the others, near the one she believed was hers. Then, taking her stick, she lit the new one. "Unit 16."

"We'll need several things for this." Ritsuko told the gathered spectators. "LCL, which we have. Lengthy DNA samples, which we have. The submerging tubes, check, the injections system, check, the hormone culture, check. What we need is someone with an active super solenoid of the correct type." She said. "Specifically, we need a half-Angel." Eyes turned to Adamu and Misa.

"That would be…" asked Adamu, his arm tightening around his fiancée.

"We need a sample of Misa-chan's core." Ritsuko announced. She and Maya pushed everyone but Misa and Adamu from the room. "Misa-chan," Ritsuko ordered, "Get on the table next to Takoru-chan." She did so, and yelped as Ritsuko pulled up her shirt to reveal her core. The doctor only rolled her eyes and went to grab her coffee while Misa shyly held her arms over her attributes. The redhead noticed her fiancé watching her with amusement and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Now, Adamu, you get the job of actually placing the equipment on her, while Maya and I get Takoru ready. Be careful with the syringe. The one that goes in her spine needs to be placed very carefully."

Calmly, Adamu slid up behind his girlfriend and slowly inserted a needle into her spine. She gasped at the sensation of the cold metal sliding into her back, but said nothing. She was almost used to it from wearing the necklace constantly. Then he took the other mechanism and reached around her, trying to find her core. His hand landed on something warm and soft.

"That's not my core, you pervert." She hissed. He smiled and gave it a quick squeeze before clamping the mechanism's head to her core. He waited for the slap, but it never came. Instead, her entire body stiffened, and he slowly withdrew his hands, worried. He got off the table and walked around so he could see her face. She locked oddly stunned, her eyes open wide and her body unmoving. Her core began to pulse brightly.

"Super solenoid tissue extraction initializing." Maya reported. He continued to watch Misa's face throughout the operation, his eyes never leaving her stunned face.

Unit 19 tore through the forest, wandering aimlessly for something to destroy. Then, it heard a voice in its head. He left me. I'm alone, all alone. Everybody leaves me. Confused, it listened to the voice moan and cry. Pain and longing flooded in with the voice, causing Unit 19 to look around for the source, hoping to stem the emotions. Alone. I'm all alone again. I have no one at all. He left me, she left me, they all leave me. Why? Why does everyone abandon me? Why do all the people that I love leave me? Why?

Then why are you still to them? Asked Unit 19. The answer seemed simple enough to the Eva.

I hate them! They left me, and I hate them! They betrayed me! They took my heart and shattered it, and they must pay!

Then why not take revenge? Asked Unit 19, confused. The voice drew back in realization, and another awareness flooded Unit 19's conscious. Yes. I will take revenge on all of them. I will annihilate them, starting with the city that took them from me!

Lilliko spread her wings and took to the air, heading back toward Tokyo 4. They shall die, all of them!

Adamu helped Misa off the table and retrieved her shirt before Takoru could revive. She was shaken, he could tell, and was very weak. She leaned against him as they walked through the corridors toward the cafeteria. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"You need to eat." He told her. "The super solenoid needs material from which to rebuild itself." She let him lead her around, and watched passively as he shoved food at her. "Are you all right?" he asked. She nodded, and took the food gratefully, a smile shyly appearing on her face.

"I'm just a bit shaken. Takoru took a lot of my S2. My core, however, is intact, they didn't take any of that, and Adam agreed to remain solely within my body." He pretended to understand what she meant. "I just need to eat." She dug in with gusto, and soon the small mountain of rice and meat and greens was gone, and she was looking for more.

Then the alarm rang.

"All combatants to stations. They're here!" Suddenly Misa was gone, Adam shining in her place. The food disappeared, absorbed directly into the Angel's AT field, and soon the table and the chairs went with it. Then Adam turned to the sky, and shot out of the building through the roof, landing at the front of NERV with all weapons ready.

The commander looked out at the city he had been watching for nearly seventeen years. He had been waiting for this day since he was first assigned. The city had always seemed to hold a dread aura around it, an ominous feeling that eventually, whoever ran NERV would achieve his goals, despite all the strange attacks upon the city.

And who was he to tell that he had let the attackers through, in hopes of letting them destroy NERV instead? He had been part of the attack force that infiltrated NERV seventeen years before, and the things he had seen told him to let someone else handle the organization. Yet here he was, attacking once again.

"Troops, move out." Tanks began to rumble down the broken roads leading to Tokyo 4. Overhead, planes moved in as trucks made their way to the city.

The troops slipped into the city, guns at ready, preparing to infiltrate the fortress known as NERV. Tanks followed, looking around cautiously for targets.

A line of soldiers fell as the sound of sniper rifles filled the otherwise silent air. A tank exploded as a special round tore through its hull and into its fuel. The remaining troops pulled back for a moment, shields at ready, forming into groups to protect each other.

Suddenly, an Eva catapult opened. But instead of an Eva flying out, a hundred anti-personnel grenades were flung high into the air, spraying bullets down on the troops. These were followed by a bombardment of anti-tank and shrapnel grenades, then a volley of rockets.

The battle had begun.

Ariline ducked into Unit 16 as the city began to light with explosions. Dai-syo and Samantha jumped onto Unit 16 and they sped toward the city, Unit 16 letting off a huge beam to herald its coming. The beam tore into the outermost buildings and blew them apart, killing countless soldiers. Then the tanks and planes began to attack Unit 16. Dai-syo and Samantha slipped into the city, and soon the place was shining with AT fields, Dai-syo's blades chopping up troops and city alike.

Samantha's AT manifestation was both subtler and more ostentatious. Billions of orange dots, each no bigger than a thimble, flew about at lightning speeds, tearing through flesh and slicing apart building foundations. A stream of dots ate through a column of soldiers, piercing armor and going straight for the heart. Another group of dots gathered into a solid fist-sized ball and smashed through a tank, crashing about the insides and crushing both the pilots and the equipment. The tank exploded, and the dots flew away to do more damage.

Samantha herself was surrounded by a whirlwind of dots, slicing through any foes who came at her. She forced her way deeper and deeper into the city, efficiently and mercilessly killing anyone and anything that got in her way.

Unit 16 was also busy tearing through the SSDF ranks, though it concentrated on the vehicles. Beam after beam of light erupted from its eye, blasting through whole divisions in single shots. The UN, however, had poured in a massive amount of resources into the attack, and wave after wave of planes came at the Eva, forcing it slowly away from the city.

Takoru looked down at his new limbs and at his new core. They all looked well enough, but his chest still felt funny from having his heart removed and replaced with a red sphere.

He grinned almost to himself. "Wonder what the guys on the soccer team would think of me now. Suzuhara Takoru, Angel."

He shook off the feeling as the order to launch Unit 20 arrived, and the g-forces pushed him back into the seat. Unit 20 shot out of the catapult and into the air, armed with a pallet gun and a progressive sword. It fired off shot after shot into the tanks while slicing through the planes. An N2 mine smashed into its chest and the Eva was thrown back, but Takoru continued to fire as the core in his chest throbbed to the beat of the battle.

Down in the Geofront itself, an AT field burst out, tearing through the foot soldiers. Adamu didn't even bother with weaponry, blasting out fire bolts with his stolen arm and knocking both people and tanks aside with his AT field.

Near him floated Adam, her power radiating from her body. Beams of light, similar to Ramiel's, shot from her body, along with acid sprays, jagged spikes and crushing tentacles. The body itself dangled limply as Adam's AT field twisted and jerked about. Round after round of shots filled the huge chamber of the Geofront, missiles and bombs launching at the two Children, but nothing got through.

In the air, Rei and Kaoru both fought with a gun in one hand and a blade in the other, swooping across the field. Rei concentrated on disabling the tanks that had gotten into the Geofront, while Kaoru sliced through planes and shot down soldiers with abandon. Adamu quickly joined them, raining fire and force waves upon the soldiers.

Up on the surface, a building exploded as Samantha tore through the fuel tanks. The explosion set off a chain reaction which caught both soldiers and planes in the blast. Unit 16 used the opportunity to push into the city, the long blades lining its sides tearing through more buildings.

A city block collapsed, Dai-syo's blades ripping through the foundations of dozens of buildings with ease. A set of three tanks fired volley after thermonuclear volley at him, but the missiles were only chopped apart mid-flight.

From hidden niches amidst the rubbles NERV snipers disabled tanks and planes. Soldiers, catching on to the snipers, split into groups to take out the annoying security officers. Takoru slashed open a plane only to have a cache of bombs dropped on him, but it didn't matter; his AT field blocked them and the explosions tore through more planes.

"Sir, we've got a bogey in the air, and it's huge!" A line of planes detached from the assault and turned to face the tremendous blue dragon hovering above them. A volley of missiles were launched at the beast, but the glowing orange light of Lilliko's AT field blocked them, detonating them in mid-air. The beast ignored them even as they moved towards heavier and heavier fire.

Takoru spared a glance at Unit 19, his eyes growing moist. Yet he tore himself away from the sight, knowing that they would have to drive out the UN forces before they could do anything about her.

Lilliko looked down at the dance of light and fire beneath her, listening to the screams, inhaling the scent of blood and smoke. Her enemies, the ones that tore so much out of her heart, were below her, out of view and out of range. She needed to make a path to them.

She plummeted, folding her wings and tucking her head in preparation for contact with the ground. Planes shot at her, tanks and soldiers joining in, and then…

She hit.