*********************
Misato was still in a state of shock: she was standing in a living being, someone who could walk, talk, feel and die. She reached out and tentatively brushed her hands against a wall. She marvelled at how warm it was; all the walls in Nerv were metal and they were cold and cruel. These walls belonged to an alien machine yet she felt more human warmth in them than she felt in Gendo Ikari when she had to meet him
"I DON'T BITE" a voice boomed, in a friendly way
"AH" Misato jumped a mile high, causing Ritsuko and Rumble to laugh
"Maximus how many times have we told you not to scare people like that?" Tracks asked as he grabbed an Energon drink
"MEH" the city Transformer replied
"Just don't let him scare you. He's friendly enough after that" Frenzy said as he kicked up his shoes and ordered a drink of 'the hard stuff'
"Rumble, what's the hard stuff?" Ritsuko asked
"Our equivalent of tequila slammers. High grade Energon fuel that knocks the crap out of you" he said with a wry chuckle
"Oh god, Misato, I wouldn't touch that if I were you" Ritsuko said as she saw Misato eyeing a cup of the purple concoction
"Why, its only booze" she said
"I never said it was booze, Misato. It takes the term 'rocket fuel' literally" Rumble explained
"Wha?" Misato went pale
"We siphon off Omega Supreme's fuel, distil it a bit for flavour and bingo, the hard stuff" Skywarp said as he drained a glass, Russian style, of said fuel
"You guys DRINK fuel?" she asked incredulously
"What you think we live on beer and bad instant food like you do?" Thundercracker said, although he was already 3 sheets to the wind
"Come on, we have things to discuss" Optimus Prime spoke to Misato and Ritsuko
"Uh, sure" she answered and followed the big robot
With little else to do other than watch the Transformers get pissed; Kaji followed the two women. They were led down a very long corridor. Kaji did marvel at how well lit the place was: in Nerv he wasn't sure if it was Gendo trying to skimp on decent lights or he deliberately made most places in there dark to give off a feeling of foreboding. Either way, he had to adapt mole vision to see in that place when he went hunting. They arrived in a large room where 4 other Transformers were waiting
"Misato I'd like you to meet Ultra Magnus and Cyclonus. The best strategists this army has to offer" Optimus introduced them
"Major" Magnus said
"Greetings" Cyclonus said in his oily voice
"Major Katsuragi I want you to discuss with these two everything you know about Eva combat strategy" Optimus said and moved on
"Okay…." Misato said while scratching her head
"Dr. Akagi this is Perceptor and this is Scrapper. Each an expert in his chosen field. Perceptor is a scientist like you and Scrapper is an engineer" Optimus explained
"What does this have to do with me?" she asked
"I want you to go over everything regarding the Evas. How to fix them, store them and build them. We need to know this" Optimus said and walked towards the door
"Why do you need this information?" Kaji asked
"One doesn't plan to obtain a plant without somewhere to put it does one" Optimus said cryptically and left the room
"Does that mean what I think it means?" Misato asked Magnus
"Yes it does. We are going to steal the Evangelions; and you can operate from here" Cyclonus answered and sat down
"Now; doctor. Your expertise please" Perceptor motioned for Ritsuko to come and see what he was looking at
[This is going to end badly, I can feel it in my bones] Ritsuko thought as she went over to Perceptor
*********************
In one of the many small areas of Fortress Maximus; Shinji and Rei were sitting watching the ocean go past them. They hadn't had much of a chance to be alone with each other in the past few days and since they both loved the ocean; Shinji made a point of finding a room where they were secluded from the others and they could see the ocean. It was Sideswipe that pointed him in the direction of 'make out tunnel'. Shinji went a shade deeper than Sideswipe's paintjob when the Transformer had said that was the place's name.
[It feels nice to be down here with her, it's relaxing and peaceful] Shinji thought and looked down at the resting beauty on his shoulder
Rei was snuggled right up to him and had her head on his shoulder while here eyes followed the fish and seahorses that seemed unperturbed by the presence of these four large city structures in their home. Shinji had no end of enjoyment watching them frolic around the tubes and stuff outside.
"This is a nice place Shinji, thank you for finding it" Rei said, squeezing his hand
"You're welcome, besides, I wanted to spend time with you alone without everyone looking over our shoulders" Shinji said, kissing the top of her head
[She uses a nice shampoo] Shinji observed a scent of, apples, in Rei's hair
And so the pair just sat there; content with each other's company and the beauty of the ocean spread before them. Rei turned her face up to Shinji and gently pulled his head towards hers for a lingering and tender kiss. Both seemed to formulate the same plan and thought at the same time and they retreated to Shinji's room and locked the door. Dark Prime could feel some kind of emotional upsurge from Shinji's mind and it didn't take him long to work out what it was either
"My, my, Shinji you sly devil you" he muttered with a most lurid grin and continued to smoke his cigarette and read the paper from Cybertron
*************************
The next day; Gendo Ikari was now beyond furious: he was livid; these insolent Transformers had taken his best scientist and his best strategist and his pilots. This was to his mind totally intolerable and unacceptable and he had to do something about it. What was worse was the media were halfway up his arse and all the way down his throat demanding to know if the attack on the Junior High was the doing of an extremist group and if the machines that defended it were of Nerv's creation so all in all; Gendo's day had gone from bad to worse.
"I'm starting to loose my patience with these people Fuyutski: they are impeding my mission" he growled to his confident
[And what a shame that is] Fuyutski had prayed long and hard for something, anything to happen that would throw a proverbial spanner in the works
[These Transformers have done more than throw a spanner in the works, they've ripped a few cogs out too] he laughed quietly at his analogy
"This is no laughing matter" Gendo heard the laughing but fortunately not the reason
"Sorry, I was just remembering an old joke I heard" he lied
"Remember jokes in your own time" Gendo snarled and returned to his desk awaiting the irate Seele call, although he knew this stuff up was their fault because they sent the army to the school in the first place
Sure enough he got the call to report to the council chambers for a meeting to discuss the ramifications of the events of late. Gendo walked silently towards his meeting but he pondered. If one thing can be said of Gendo positively, it is that he wastes no time and is always thinking about something, always checking or investigating something. His reverie of his problems was stopped when he approached the door to the Seele Council Chambers. Breathing in and holding it he opened the door and walked in and sat down
"Gentlemen" he addressed the assembly
*****************
*****************
Inside Fortress Maximus, an air of peace seemed to have settled among the inhabitants; even Misato was relaxing. But the most relaxed individuals in the whole base were Shinji and Rei. Both lay cuddled up on Shinji's bed asleep and peaceful. Outside the door were Dark Prime and Grimlock. They were 'debating' whether to inform Misato of what happened
"She'll freak out" Dark Prime said, dragging on his cigarette
"Why?" Grimlock was confused; as far as he knew, what happened came naturally to humans and even Transformers
"Cos she's worried about the age thing, I honestly don't think it's a big deal myself; but, maybe I'm not looking at it in the right light" he said and flicked the ash into an ashtray
"They just love each other. Nothing wrong with that" Grimlock pointed out
Dark Prime turned his head and stared at the Dinobot leader and contemplated possibly the first really intelligent thing that Grimlock had ever said. Rei and Shinji loved each other and that was all there was to it according to Grimlock and maybe, just maybe he was right about that.
"You know what Grimlock, you're right" Dark Prime said and stood up: the needed him for the mission that lay ahead
"Grimlock; you go with them everywhere once they leave this room, aside from the toilets and other private rooms, be near them" Dark Prime instructed his friend
"Okay" Grimlock nodded
********************
Dark Prime thanked him and jogged to the mission briefing room: at the table sat Optimus, Megatron, Ultra Magnus and Cyclonus, and Elita 1. Dark Prime took his place and awaited the plan to be laid out. Once Misato and Ritsuko took their seats, Optimus Prime began
"Okay: we have finished building gantries for the Evangelions. Their diagnostic and monitoring systems have been built. All we need now is the Evas themselves" he said
"And how do you propose to get them?" Misato asked
"Dark Prime, along with Elita 1 will get them. The Combaticons and the Aerialbots will distract Nerv's attentions for a while to allow them entry to retrieve them. We have one chance at this, and we can't stuff it up" Ultra Magnus explained at length
"Oh joy, I get to totally waste myself again" Dark Prime muttered
"Listen up people, if we pull this off right, Nerv is fucked. They can't hurt anyone else without those Evangelions" Megatron said
"Okay, okay, just let's get it over with. When do we leave?" Elita 1 asked
"Tonight, when there is a skeleton crew on duty" Cyclonus replied and grinned
"So get some sleep everyone, you will need it" Optimus urged
"Does that mean you'll be joining the Technobots and the Stunticons in the bar, Optimus?" Dark Prime asked smoothly
"And you ever have a night at home with someone" Optimus shot back, although he did go slightly red, so did Elita 1
The table erupted into cheers and whistles and laughter at the expense of Optimus Prime. He was among his closet comrades and friends here. Some he'd called enemy, now they were invaluable to him and he to them. They'd supported each other and now all the hoping and waiting was going to pay off. He chuckled with them himself now and Elita used the opportunity to smack Dark Prime upside the head with the butt of her rifle. This made the laughter increase
"Come on Misato; that was kind of funny" Ritsuko said once she'd calmed down a bit
"Yeah, I suppose it was" she said when she arrived at the area that housed the human quarters of the city.
She saw Grimlock lying in front of Shinji's room. With a confused look on her face, she went and spoke to the dinosaur robot who is playing a gameboy.
"Ah, Grimlock: aren't you supposed to be guarding Rei?" she asked
"I am" he replied and went back to playing his gameboy
"How can you be; these are Shinji's quarters" Misato said
"I know. They both in there, I watching Shinji for Dark Prime also" he answered
Gears moved, synapses fired, and wires connected in the minds of both women and at the same moment, as if they'd grown 'My Favourite Martian' antennas and beamed the information to each other.
"They slept together!" Ritsuko was the one that cried out
"Yeah I know" Misato said, she seemed to have misconnected a wire in how Ritsuko meant her words to be interpreted
"Not slept, Misato; slept" Ritsuko accentuated the word slept with a wink
"OH MY GOD" Misato cried out and ran towards the door.
She was given a rude awakening when Grimlock stopped her by lying in front of the door in his dinosaur mode. Misato tried to stare the Dinobot commander down but she was doomed from the start: Grimlock could stare anyone bar Dark Prime down. Then Misato and Ritsuko began throwing opinions and laws at Grimlock. This of course meant nothing to the simpleminded Dinobot: he'd been asked to safeguard this room and those in it by a trusted friend and ally and he would do so. Dark Prime returned several minutes later to see the bickering trio. He knew the door was thick but that was a lot of noise
"SILENCE" he boomed, his glyphs lighting up the dim corridor with a fiery glow
"What is the meaning of this racket?" he demanded in the silence
"Shinji and Rei have-" Ritsuko began
"I know what they have done, if I thought there was something improper going on I would have intervened. I saw no need" he said and shuffled beside Grimlock to rest before the mission
"They're only 14 for Christ's sake!" Misato cried
"What are so worried about?" Dark Prime asked exasperatedly
"Pregnancy for one" Misato said dryly
"Last time I checked, pregnancy wasn't possible for Rei" Dark Prime growled and shifted his sword
"What?" Misato's argument had just been seriously derailed
"If you ask the good doctor you will find out that due an order by none other than Gendo Ikari: Rei's ovaries and uterus were surgically removed before the arrival of Shinji" Dark Prime said, shooting the scientist an angered look
"What? Is this true?" Misato asked
"Yeah, this true?" Grimlock jumped up
"Yes, it is true: Rei Ayanami will never naturally conceive children of her own" Ritsuko admitted
"Oh dear god: that kind of violation is nearly as bad as rape. He deserves to die" Misato sobbed as the reality of her friend's words sunk in
"Indeed he is; but a great English writer once wrote 'Many that live deserve death and many that die deserve life', it is not our place in the universe to decided such things" Dark Prime spoke at length
"Gendo bad man, hurt Rei, he die if Dinobots get him" Grimlock had sent this information to his comrades and they all agreed to a 'blood oath' to kill Gendo Ikari if they found him
"Grimlock, it isn't our place to deal out life and death as we see fit, Dark Prime is right" they all turned and saw Optimus Prime
"But it still isn't appropriate what the did. What gives him the right to do such things to people?" Misato screamed
"There are two people behind that door, they are both asleep. Take this conversation elsewhere for their peace" Dark Prime cried
"I agree: Major Katsuragi, Dr. Akagi: please follow me" Optimus Prime slowly and quietly began walking down the hallway
With little other choice in the matter, Ritsuko and Misato followed him. Dark Prime checked his chronometer: he had 4 hours to rest before he went off and did a Goodbye Lady Liberty, times 3. Sighing he settled down and went to sleep. Not knowing his greatest challenge still lay ahead of him.
***********************
It was late night shift at Nerv, even the commander wasn't there: he was at whatever it was he called a home and so was Fuyutski. The mainstream members of Nerv were all at home, there now were only a few people in the whole base. Two of which were the fathers of Toji and Mari, and Hikari and Kodama. The two men were beside themselves with worry for their children. All of them were in some undersea city with giant robots and they had no idea if they were friend of foe. In the science area, they discussed their dilemmas.
"Think the kids are okay?" Musashi Horaki asked
"I don't know; Toji seemed to be having the time of his life when he rang me. I don't know but these being can't be all bad: I mean they did save everyone in that school" Takada Suzaharra said
"True, Hikari said that Kodama and your daughter Mari were getting help beyond that of Nerv. She said that these Transformers will allow your daughter to walk again" Musashi added, trying to cheer his workmate up
"Yes, Toji said the same thing to me. At first I didn't believe it until Mari said she could feel her legs again" Takada dropped the test tube he was holding as he began shaking again
"Again?" the other man asked
"Yes; I don't know when it started or why; just that it has" Takada groaned as he sat down and moved his fingers and clenched a fist a few times to get the blood flowing again
"You should see a doctor about this" Musashi counselled
"When do I have time to see a doctor? The commander wants all this crap done yesterday. I get sick and its leave with out pay and a serious threat to my position and I need this job for my family" Takada wailed and nearly broke down from stress.
Then without warning, alarms and klaxons went berserk all over the base and nearly deafened the two men with the suddenness of their sound off. Then Takada saw a yellow field engulfing the room and on reflex thought it was an AT Field but before he could do anything it hit him and he saw only black.
Meanwhile; Elita 1 and Dark Prime made their way to the Evangelion gantry area. In their arms were phase shifters. Upon reaching the Evangelions and placing the phase shifters on each Eva; Dark Prime told Elita 1 to grab an Eva. She released her hold on the base and collapsed over the foot of Eva 00. Dark Prime then concentrated all of his power and mind towards a single goal: the teleportation of these three giants to their new homes inside Fortress Maximus. With a great flash of white and black light, they all disappeared from Nerv HQ.
Inside the new gantry area for the Evas, Predaking, Superion and Computron were waiting. Another flash and their targets arrived: each gestalt carefully grabbed hold of one Eva. Predaking was chosen for Eva 1 since his animalistic pride and fearless nature allowed him to look at the purple demon's face without flinching. After Ratchet and First Aid recovered Elita 1 and Dark Prime from the area in a fatigued state: each gestalt gently lifted each Eva and placed it in a gantry.
[Incredible, they lift them as if they are made of nothing but tinfoil] Rei thought as she and the other humans watched their Evas being moved to their new home
"We still have to fight don't we?" Shinji asked, placing his head in the crook of Rei's neck
"Yes" she answered softly, feeling Shinji nip her neck
Misato then saw Rei do something very out of the ordinary; with a playful look in her eyes, the albino gently elbowed Shinji in the ribs. He made mock pain noises as Rei turned her head to speak directly into her lover's ear. Only the Transformers hear the comment she made, but it was later revealed as 'Down boy, wait till later'. As Ritsuko supervised the connection of the Evas to their monitoring systems and such, Misato made a beeline for the two young lovers in her midst.
"Well, did you two have a pleasant sleep?" she asked, a predatory glint in her eyes
"Yes major, we did" Rei answered quietly but not without a certain; smug satisfaction
"S, sure we did" Shinji was less enthused about sharing such information with anyone
Rei allowed a small smile to grace her face as she silently chuckled at Shinji's nervous behaviour. She did not fault him for not being open about that 'section' of their relationship since it was for all intents and purposes private and he was very candid about the other parts of their relationship.
"Well, that must have been very good for the both of you" she continued, circling them like a shark does its prey.
"Yes it was very good" Rei's answer held an unintentional innuendo.
Before Misato could continue in her line of questioning, an alert sounded through out the Stronghold: they had detected an Angel heading for Tokyo 3 at high speed. Megatron then turned to the pilots and said something
"Okay, time to fight" he said and also scrambled the gestalt teams as their backups
"As I dreaded. We fight again" Shinji mumbled as he got changed into his plugsuit.
"At least this time we are well backed up" Asuka interjected
"True, but the fact remains without us they could not defeat the Angel by themselves" Rei said
"I think you are forgetting Dark Prime: he managed to neutralize the last Angel's AT Field" Shinji reminded them
"Still, we have 3 AT Fields, they have 1" Rei reasoned and pressed the button on her suit
In a laboratory in Metroplex, Wheeljack, Pipes, Perceptor and the Constructicons were hard at work developing something. They had been working on it for millions of years but the most progress had been made over the past 15 years or so in the development of an Anti-AT Field generator. This was the highest priority scientific project to be undertaken since the successful development of the transport rings. Now they were on the verge of a breakthrough.
"Will these work?" Optimus Prime asked as he examined the devices: it was flat, rectangular and about the area of his hand.
"I hope so: We're giving the first prototype to Devastator since he has the best sensor array of all of the gestalts" Perceptor said
"We owe a great deal to Hook on this project at any rate; his micro-welding abilities are unrivalled" the scientist said
"Thank you" Hook said with is trademark smugness
"Button it you; they have to work first" Scrapper chided his team mate
"Okay, give them a trial run in this battle. Hopefully nothing to bad will go wrong" Optimus said as he went to the command deck to join Misato: how could he know how wrong he was
********************
Zeruel was laying waste to the city of Tokyo 3: he wasn't yet in range enough to breach the shelter area but his current shots were turning the city into a wasteland. He was marvelling at how much more powerful he was thanks to Unicron. Zeruel used his blade ribbons to cut up aircraft that came within range, and since his range was anywhere he could see, it wasn't overly difficult. He was having such fun when the Evas seemed to appear out of nowhere, along with several other robots. These were like those that killed his favourite sister, the one that came before him to rescue their mother and father. With his rage he attakcked.
"RAISE AT FIELD" Asuka bellowed
"Roger" the other said and did the same
Zeruel's attack was swift and vicious with pounding strikes and the use of his blades to keep the others at bay. It eventually ended up that Zeruel had sliced off Asuka's arms and head, rendering her unable to battle. She was teleported back to the Stronghold
"Such weakness, I expected more from you" Zeruel crowed and launched himself at Shinji
"We need to use the Anti-AT Field generator" Devastator said to himself and ran into the fray
He acted in huge error. The effect of an Anti-AT Field and an ordinary AT Field coming together is a lot like that of matter and antimatter with less devastating results: never the less, when Devastator activated the device within range of the Angel; the results were less than desirable and resulted in the total disabling and knocking out of Shinji's Eva and Shinji himself, although he passed out seeing the Angel making a beeline for Rei with his blades up and ready
"NOOOOO!" he cried before passing out
In his medical berth in the Stronghold, Dark Prime suddenly awoke to the scream of Shinji in his head. He looked all around saw Elita 1 beside him on the way to recovery. Grabbing his sword and stumbling out of the Medbay Dark Prime staggered towards the teleporters. He could sense Shinji was in serious turmoil and that Rei was in pain. He made it and set the coordinates so he appeared beside Eva 01. With a vain hope in his heart, Dark Prime went through the teleport ring
"I pray I am not too late" he said as he approached the badly damaged Evangelion
He saw the Angel playing with Unit 00 like a cat does with a mouse before it kills it. Just looking at the Angel he could sense Unicron's hand in its extraordinary powers. Still staggering he floated up and perched himself on the beast's chest and looked into its eyes. With his resolve and strength waning, he spoke quickly
"I have a bargain for you Yui Ikari: let me merge with Evangelion 01 and together we shall destroy he who wronged your son" he said
"My son is already one with Eva, what do you offer to enrich us?" she asked
"My powers and my knowledge" he replied
"Agreed then, come join us; Dark Prime" Yui answered and accepted Dark Prime by absorbing him through the core
There was a flash of light and every single dial and scientific gauge all over the world blew out and registered high-energy spikes and an unknown power source. In the Stronghold Misato and the other Transformers shield their eyes from the bright light. Ritsuko only gulped as she contemplated the consequences.
Outside, the Angel had dropped Eva 00 and she was helped to safety by the gestalts. As for Eva 01: it had become black and shimmered with a liquid like sheen. The glyphs that were on Dark Prime's body were now on this body. A long black cape flowed like an obsidian flame from his back. An antenna grew from each side of the head and angled out. The sword Dark Prime wielded seemed to glide from the Eva's body into a hand. It then drew the rest of the blade from its body and held the sword down. Suddenly the eyes of the Eva burst open and burnt like molten rock. Zeruel looked at the Eva.
"Evangelion Unit 01?" Zeruel said
"No" the voice was like an ice wind that touched them in the minds of everyone
"There is no more Unit 01, there is only…" a pause as everyone waited for something, anything, too happen.
The Eva shot forward and grabbed Zeruel by the neck. Zeruel tried attacking with his beams and blades. The blades melted as they contacted the skin of its adversary. Zeruel felt his neck skin burn where the hand was. Zeruel hit the ground.
"Dark Eva" it snarled