Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion or Palladium books, the makers of Rifts. However, I did come up with all the original characters in this story. I do own them.

A/N: The Rifts side of the story will begin in this chapter and I would just like to reiterate that if you don't understand any terms than e-mail me and I'll happily explain them to you. There's nothing worse than a story where you don't understand half of what's going on. Also, I am going to include some author's notes on the bottom with some of the descriptions. When you see a (#) next to a term, it means that it is listed at the notes on the bottom. 0000000 denotes scene or point of view change. Enough chit chat, on with the story.

Of Rifts and Evas

Book 1 of the Heaven's Storm Trilogy

Chapter 1: I told you so

Dimension: Rifts Earth

Location: Magic Zone(1), Former USA

Date: June, 14 109 PA (Post Apocalypse)

"Ow, Dammit!"

Private Jenkins swore violently as he put down his razor and mirror. He had nicked himself again.

"That's the third damn time this morning." He growled to himself.

"Hey, Jenkins aren't you supposed to be able to shave yourself at 19." Someone jeered.

Jenkins promptly shot the bird at his fellow Coalition(2) soldier, Private Ambermarle.

"I'm hurt, does this mean that were not going steady." Ambermarle shot back.

"I've got yer steady right here." Jenkins said as he flashed his side arm, a C-18 laser pistol.

"Yeah, but mines bigger'en yours." Ambermarle quipped as he held up his weapon, a C-29 "Hellfire" plasma cannon.

"Alright, knock it off ladies. You can continue your lovers quarrel once we get back to Fort Cranston, but until we do don't for get where you are. I don't want ya arguing and let some D-bee(3) or magic user get the drop on us." This came from Sgt. Paxton, who always seemed to have a cigar in his mouth and his CP-50 "DragonFire" laser rifle in his hands. In other words, the perfect example of a Coalition Sergeant.

All around the camp coalition soldiers, in their infamous Dead Boy(4) armor, were packing up camp and getting ready to head home. It had been a long and arduous patrol and everyone was quite thrilled to be on the edge of the Magic Zone, only 14 miles away from Ft. Cranston.

'Won't be long enough.' Jenkins thought to himself as he picked up his mirror and finished shaving.

It had been his first patrol into the Magic Zone and Jenkins secretly hoped it would be his last. Not two days out they had been jumped by a pack of D-bees near the ruins of what had once been the town of Bridgeport, Ohio. Orcs, the Sergeant had called them. Jenkins hadn't cared, to him all D-bees were the same. The Orcs had been armed with primitive hand weapons, only a few of which were Mega-damage(5) capable. None had been armed with any sort of firearm. In fact, if it hadn't been for the magic-using orc the grunts would have been easily able to clear the D-bees out.

'Poor private Welk.' Jenkins thought to himself. The private's screams still woke him up at night.

'At least we got'em all for her.' Once the magic-user had gone down the soldiers had swept the town killing anything that wasn't human. By the end of the day they had purged the town of all the damn D-bees.

Other than Welk, the patrol had suffered no losses and only a few minor wounds.

After Bridgeport, the rest of the patrol had gone smoothly, a few nests of D-bees had been put to the torch and their inhabitants slaughtered, but that had been simple. None of them had put up a fight.

Jenkins examined himself in the mirror, "You are a handsome devil."

Ambermarle chuckled as he walked past, "Yeah, keep tellin yerself that."

Jenkins gave Ambermarle a look that would have killed had it been able to, and to Private Jenkins' utmost surprise it worked. Private Ambermarle's head disintegrated into a red mist.

0000000000

Private Ambermarle's killer savored the look of complete surprise on the Coalition soldier's face as he watched his fellow's head disappear.

"Well, there's their heads up." Quipped a voice in his ear.

Scott Fenix sighed and spoke into his headset, "Less wise cracking, more shooting Marc."

"Yes sir, commander sir." The reply was condescending and Scott could almost imagine Marc Fitzler, his friend and fellow magic-user, throwing him a facetious salute.

Scott turned his eyes back to the Coalition camp, the Sergeant was shouting out orders and his troops were racing around the camp setting up firing positions.

"C'mon, I know you're in there somewhere. Why don't you come out to play." Scott whispered to his target.

As soon as Scott said that four skeletons, seeming to have just risen from the grave, emerged from behind the Coalition hover car.

'Ah, there you are.' Scott thought to himself, while saying aloud, "Targets spotted."

Upon closer examination, one would find that these were not real skeletons. They were robots. Coalition Skelebots which had been assigned to work with the patrol. Their black and white armor resembled that of the Dead boys' body armor. In their hands they carried stubby, but deadly, rail guns. An ammo belt ran from the butt of the rail gun to the Skelebots back where the ammunition was stored.

At the appearance of the Skelebots, the sergeant ordered everyone to open fire. The CS(6) Dead boys quickly began firing in the general direction they assumed the shot had come from.

"Not even close." Scott whispered as he drew a bead on another Dead boy. As soon as Scott had the shot he whispered a few words and the air in front of him seemed to shimmer, much like the shimmer you see on a hot day. Scott squeezed the trigger on his las rifle and fired into the shimmer.

The great thing, and most disappointing thing about lasers is that unlike in the movies, they make no sound when fired. (A/N: As a sci-fi fanatic, I was greatly disappointed when I read this.) That makes a laser an excellent sniper weapon, at least until you open fire and the beam of light gives you away. Scott had decided to combine a commonly used camouflage spell with the laser. When the spell was cast all one had to do was fire into the affected area of the spell and the laser bolt just disappeared. Of course it wasn't completely invisible, if you watched closely you could see the shimmer of air that marked the passage of the laser bolt.

"Not that the target would have the time to look." Scott chuckled to himself.

Scott's target fell back from his position, a smoking crater in his chest.

Using this same tactic Scott dropped two more CS grunts, but had to duck when one of the Skelebots raked rail gun fire over his position. He doubted that he had been seen, he was quite well concealed under his chameleon cloak. It looked more like the Skelebots were firing in a covering pattern, keeping the flanks of the CS position clear.

"Um, Marc you can fire whenever you're ready." Scott said into his comm-unit.

"Another minute." Marc replied.

"Surely you're not serious." Scott said, getting a little anxious as the CS was coming his way.

"Of course I'm not serious." Marc said cheerfully. "And don't call me Shirley."

Scott was coming up with a reply when a rocket was launched from the trees behind the CS position. It impacted right in the middle of the three Skelebots, but didn't explode. No, it had a different purpose.

Fire from the CS positions slackened as the soldiers anxiously waited for the rocket to explode. After about 20 seconds passed and it still hadn't exploded the CS grunts began laughing and the fire from their positions picked up again, some of it now aimed behind them at Marc's position.

"Idiots." Scott sighed.

A full minute after the rockets impact, its nose split open and four spindly legs popped out of the back. It stood itself up and began to generate a humming sound. Energy began to coalesce in the opening on top. A CS Dead boy noticed and pointed his weapon at the rocket, but he was too late. Before he could fire the energy in the opening coalesced into a crackling blue orb which then launched itself into the air and detonated. All the CS soldiers ducked for cover, trying to escape the blast. The blast did not affect them though, it wasn't meant to. The Skelebots on the other hand were not so lucky. Electrical energy raced up and down their bodies for a few seconds before all three finally collapsed in a heap.

"It worked." Marc said in an incredulous tone.

"I'll be damned." Scott added.

'Alright, time to finish this.' Scott told himself. He then calmly laid his las rifle down; he would need his hands for this spell. Drawing deep from the reservoir off P.P.E(7) inside of him, Scott began to chant words of power, ancient words of power. At each word he inscribed its sigil into the air, where it hovered for a second before disappearing. Even as the CS soldiers opened fire again, Scott kept up the chant, picking up the pace of the words. Energy sparked and flared all around him. CS fire turned towards him, but by this time it didn't matter. Even as plasma and laser blasts flicked past him, Scott finished the chant and forced the energy away from himself and towards the coalition encampment. The energy turned into a mist which hung over the CS soldiers. The mist quickly condensed into a thick fog which obscured the Coalition position.

"Why'd you choose that one?" Marc asked, genuine puzzlement in his voice.

"You saw what they did, all the innocents they slaughtered. For that, they receive no mercy." Scott growled out.

"Well, you chose the perfect spell for it." Marc said, even as noise started to filter out of the fog. You couldn't see anything, but then again you really didn't need to. Weapon discharges could be heard and every now and then a high pitched shriek or scream echoed from the fog.

After a few minutes silence reined. Scott whispered a few words and the fog disappeared, the spell discontinued.

The CS position now resembled a charnel house. Dead boys, now a literal title, laid everywhere. Some had been shot, one looking like he had shot himself. The sergeant had a vibro-knife sticking from his chest. His killer, or what was left of him, lay a few feet away, a prime example of what one looked like after being shot at close range with a plasma cannon.

While the body was badly charred, you could still see the tell tale Dead boy armor he had been wearing.

The CS soldiers had killed each other.

The spell Scott had used was simply called the Terror. Anyone inside of the fog, except for the spell caster, saw their worst fears or relived the most horrific experiences of their life. The images were hallucinations, but to those under the effects of the spell it looked quite real. It looked as if one man had so wanted for the visions to go away that he had clawed his eyes out.

Scott rarely used the Terror and for a good reason. Anyone in the fog was affected by the spell, friend or foe. Still, the Coalition soldiers had committed mass murder of innocents and while Scott did not consider himself judge, jury, and executioner, he did believe that the punishment fit the crime.

Scott approached the Skelebots, not surprised to see that Marc had arrived before him.

"The Immobilizer missile worked like a dream." Marc crowed happily.

"I guess an, I told you so is in....whoa." Scott suddenly felt very weak and fell to his knees.

Marc jumped up grabbed Scott before he could complete his fall to the ground. He dragged him over to the CS hover car. Scott leaned against it, fighting off the wave of weakness that had passed over him. Yet another reason why he rarely used the Terror. The cost in P.P.E was very high and tended to leave Scott quite drained of energy.

"I guess I over did it." Scott said weakly.

"Yeah, I'd say so, just stay here for a minute and I'll load are prizes onto the hover car." Marc said, a genuine look of worry crossing his face as he saw how weak his friend looked.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. So we're stealing the hover car too." Scott said, changing the subject.

"Owners are dead and by the inter-dimensional rules of robbery/homicide, this now belongs to us." Marc said, still a little worried.

Marc then turned to the three Skelebots and one by one cast levitation spells on them and directed their floating form into the back of the hover car, where he then laid them down. He then proceeded to move around the Coalition camp and strip the CS soldiers of their weapons and E-clips(8). He placed these in the back of the hover car with the Skelebots. Marc took one of the plasma cannons, put in a fresh E-canister(9) and proceeded to dispose of the bodies.

Meanwhile, Scott had pulled an amulet out of his pocket and drew some of the energy out of it, replenishing some of his own energy. Slowly Scott felt some of his strength return.

"Alright, it's all done. Now let's get the hell out of here." Marc said, having finished cleaning up the scene.

"You misted(10) the bodies?" Scott asked.

"Yep, nobodies going to be finding them, unless they bring in some specialist equipment." Marc stated.

Scott took a look around the clearing. Looking at it now, one wouldn't have thought that a battle had just taken place here. Blasted trees, scorched earth, the dead bodies had all disappeared. Rotting stumps occupied the area where the remains of charred trees once lay.

"Impressive work." Scott stated.

"Yeah, it's just an illusion though, in about a week everything will revert back to normal." Marc said.

"There is one problem though." Marc then pointed to a CS soldier at the edge of the clearing. He was curled up in the fetal position and looked dead. However, upon closer examination you could tell that he was very much alive.

The soldier was muttering something almost incomprehensible.

"Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop." He repeated it over and over again.

"What do we do about him?" Asked Marc.

"Leave him." Scott responded.

Marc hopped into the front seat of the hover car and quickly hot wired it. He then opened the passenger door to let Scott in. When Scott got into the passenger seat Marc stepped on the accelerator and sped away, heading deeper into the Magic Zone.

0000000000

A few days later, a ragged looking soldier wandered into Fort Cranston. He was half mad and kept crying out about how demons had slaughtered his unit.

A unit was sent out to find the rest of the soldiers patrol. The patrol was never found; for all intents and purposes it had up and disappeared.

While demons weren't ruled out in the official report, it was mentioned that more than likely that magic had been used. Unfortunately, without a battle site or bodies to examine investigators really couldn't give an exact cause for the disappearance. In the end the investigation was labeled unsolved, filed away and promptly forgotten. The story of the patrols disappearance quickly joined the ranks of horror stories told between CS soldiers.

The survivor, a Private Jenkins, was institutionalized and his patrol joined the ranks of patrols which had met mysterious ends in the dreaded Magic Zone.

000000000

End Ch.1

Next chapter....2: A risk not worth taking.

A/N: What do you think? Please review. Good reviews are welcomed, as is constructive criticism (I want to know what I might be doing wrong, I'm new at this). Flames are not welcome and will be quickly extinguished.

OMAKES- written by vcharlie

OMAKE (1): chapter 1: I told you so
"Why'd you choose that one?" Marc asked, genuine puzzlement in his voice.

"You saw what they did, all the innocents they slaughtered. For that, they receive no mercy." Scott growled out.

"Well, you chose the perfect spell for it." Marc said, even as noise started to filter out of the fog.

You couldn't see anything, but then again you really didn't need to. The noises of moans and slapping sounds echoing from the fog did surprise Marc.

'He did use the Terror spell, right?'

After a few minutes silence reined. Scott whispered a few words and the fog disappeared, the spell discontinued.

The CS position now resembled an orgy gone bad, the Dead Boys were naked in a pile in what could be considered just plain wrong. They had fucked each other to death

"Scott what the hell is wrong with you?!" Marc was absolutely horrified at the spell Scott used.

"I said I gave them no mercy, the Sexual Frenzy spell makes the body feel unquenchably sexually attracted to the first thing it sees. The conscience mind is still aware of what they are doing but they can't do anything about it." Scott nonchalantly replies.

Marc thinks, 'Note to self: don't piss Scott off, also try to find a toned down version of that spell, a camcorder, and a feminist club.'
-End of OMAKE (1)-

OMAKE (2): chapter 1: I told you so
What the CS grunts saw:

The Dead Boys saw the mist envelop and descend on their position. All of a sudden from the mist the most horrible creatures appeared singing their song of death.

"I love you, you love me..." began the horrible, terrifying, gay Barney. The Teletubbies began to frolic around, showing horrible, horrible shows that are to comfort men who aren't men anymore being comforted by men. The horror, the shear horror.
-End of OMAKE (2)-

(#)-terms

1. Magic Zone-An area encompassing the portions of the former states of Southeastern Missouri, Arkansas, southern Illinois, and the Ohio Valley (Southern Indiana and Ohio). It is a wild, untamed land with a high concentration of magic energy.

2. Coalition-The major human power in North America. Its capital is the city of Chi-Town (no it's not Chicago). Its territory is divided into the states of Chi-town (Northern Illinois and all of Iowa), El Dorado (north-east Arkansas), Iron Heart (the eastern half of the old Ontario province, Canada), Lone Star (Northwestern Texas), Missouri. The Coalition States government is fascist, human supremacists. They are also anti-magic. Basically, if you are not human or you use magic, they'll kill ya. They have no problems with genocide and commit it on a regular basis.

3. D-bee-Slang term for a dimensional being. Pretty much any thing from another dimension, be it a demon, a robot, or an alien. Even humans from another dimension, if they openly talk of it or show it, are labeled D-bees. The Coalition states hate all D-bees and will usually kill them on sight.

4. Dead Boy-The title given to Coalition soldiers. So called because of the Death's Head motif which has become the de facto symbol of the Coalition states.

5. Mega-damage-One of the two damage settings in Rifts. The other is Standard-damage.

Ex: A human, unless in M.D body armor, is a Standard-damage creature. A dragon, being a creature of magic, is a mega-damage creature. The high levels of magic energy on Rifts earth allow creatures of magic, supernatural beings, monsters and things to be mega-damage creatures. I'll make sure to list when the creature is M.D or S.D.

6. CS-Coalition states

7. P.P.E-Potential Psychic Energy, aka magic energy.

8. E-clips-Energy clips. They can be used in a number of devices besides weapons. They are rechargeable sources of energy.

9. E-canister-Larger, more potent form of E-clip. Contains a larger charge.

10. Misted-To disintegrate something, usually a body or building. So called because all that's left is mist.