Angels of Armageddon

by Ryan Xavier

Love and warfare after the apocalypse...

20. Chapter 16

DISCLAIMER: The characters, story, universe, etc. of Neon Genesis

Evangelion belong to GAINAX. They're not mine, and I make no claim to

them.

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Foreword: I'm going to break fan fiction protocol (if such a thing

exists) and actually say something before I begin. I'll admit right

now that I've been lax in coming out with new chapters. I've had to

take an unscheduled break from AoA, both for school and to rediscover

my motivation. But now I'm back. So enjoy the latest chapter.

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" " = speech

^ ^ = thoughts

_ _ = italics

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Angels of Armageddon

Author: Ryan Xavier

Chapter 16: Dark Nights, Darker Secrets

"I guess I don't really have to ask what it is you're doing, do I?

Lewis asked, the cocky smile that was so clear on his lips vanishing

some time before it could reach his eyes.

The children had frozen, like deer caught in headlights. The American

platoon stood silent, waiting for one of them to speak up. Or make a

wrong move.

"We were just going to look around," Shinji blurted out, without

thinking. "We..." he tried to continue, but his throat closed up. He

could almost _hear_ their fingers tightening on the triggers, ready to

drop them all at the slightest provocation. He swallowed, and

continued in a much quieter voice. "We didn't mean any harm."

"Uh huh," Lewis replied, sarcastically. His gun lowered, however, its

laser coming off of Shinji's chest and aiming safely into the dirt.

"Any reason I should believe you?" he asked Shinji, cocking an eyebrow.

"Oh, come on!" Asuka cut in. "You've seen this place! You know what

everything's like out here! What are you so scared of?"

Lewis cocked an eyebrow at the word 'scared'. His fingers worked,

apparently of their own volition, snapping the safety onto his gun and

smoothly sliding it back into the holster at his hip. It was a token

gesture, though; the other guns remained pointed at their targets.

"This has been officially designated as an American work site," Lewis

explained, the condescending tone in his voice grating on Asuka's

nerves. "That means who goes in or out is up to the ranking officer on

site. S'cuze me." He turned to the soldiers. "Remind me, who's the

ranking one here? My memory's not all that good."

Even if the soldiers didn't speak Japanese, they were certainly able to

pick up on the tone in Lewis' voice. Shinji thought he could hear a

few of the men chuckle. If they did, though, the laugh never reached

their trigger fingers. Nor did it make their masked, valved, and

goggled visages, eyes glowing with the green of tint of light

amplification, any less intimidating.

"So anything you guys want to do, you got to go through me." At this,

he gestured briefly at the troops. "Stand down," he called out firmly,

in English. As one, the troops lowered their weapons, the lasers

finally winking out.

"All right, I've had my fun," Lewis said, over the heads of the

soldiers, into the darkness beyond.

Shinji heard footsteps. In moments, Misato and Maya were in view.

Given the look in Misato's eyes, Shinji briefly wondered if he'd been

better off with the guns aimed at him.

Misato stared at them, hands on her hips, saying nothing. Her

expression was not one of anger, or pity; just disappointment. Asuka

opened her mouth to say something, but only succeeded in drawing that

glare to her. The words died in the German girl's mouth.

"Now then," Lewis said, rubbing his hands together. "Feel like

explaining, Katsuragi?"

Misato sighed, rolling her eyes. "We came here to relieve the

commanding officer on site," she said to the children, her voice cold.

"If any of you had been paying _attention_, you'd know the previous

commander left just today. That means our American...associate..." she

said, pausing for word choice, "...is the one in control, now." She

shook her head at them, giving Shinji and Asuka a maternal look. "All

you had to do was ask," she finished, quietly.

Asuka had looked away, keeping her face impassive. Shinji met Misato's

eyes, looking at that calm, collected expression on the woman he

remembered as being unpredictable and often irresponsible. Guilt had

flooded him, but it seemed he'd forgotten how to speak; he couldn't do

anything other than meet her eyes.

"Anyway," Lewis said, slowly approaching Kensuke. "Outta the way,

kid," he said, putting one hand on Kensuke's shoulder and pulling him

away from the keypad.

"Roberts?" Lewis said, beckoning one of the men behind him. He came

forward, nodding at Lewis before kneeling down next to the keypad.

"Colonel?" Shinji asked, having looked away from Misato at some point.

"What...what are you doing?"

"Like I said, I make the rules now," Lewis explained, shrugging. "And,

well...I'm awake, you got my men outta bed, _you_ sure look like you're

ready. I figure, why wait?" He shrugged.

Kensuke looked up at the big man. "You're letting us in?"

"Hell of a lot easier when you know the code." The keypad beeped, as

though in response to this.

Asuka, for her part, had glanced over the assembled troops. They all

held laser-sight equipped assault rifles, and looked to be carrying

grenades and handguns in addition to that. They carried flashlights,

but at the moment they were all wearing heavy night vision goggles over

their eyes.

"Geez," Asuka said, back to her old cocky self now that the danger had

passed. "Got enough firepower, _boys_?" She put her fists on her

hips, looking skeptically at Lewis. Most of the Americans looked at

her oddly; with the exception of Lewis, they hadn't understood what

she'd said.

For his part, Lewis shrugged again. "Eh, just one of those things you

have to be sure of. Should've seen the look on _your_ face, fraulein."

That shut Asuka up. Shinji found himself holding in a laugh, despite

himself. He turned away from Asuka, just in case she might see. He

looked at the cold metal of the door, waiting for it to open. Around

him, the rest of the group had gone silent. They, too, were wondering

what would be down there. Their attention was focused on the large

door, the last barrier between them and a nightmare that a good many

people in their group had believed they'd never see again.

* * *

In the darkness behind the door, nothing moved. No light could be

seen, no warmth could be felt, no living thing could be found.

It seemed an eternity before Lewis's men finally made progress on the

door. The stresses of Impact and the forces of decay had long since

broken the access panel, and they had to resort to using a welding

torch to cut through the wall to get the manual overrides working again.

It eventually gave, however, leaving Lewis's men straining to turn the

rusted gears and cogs just enough to permit entry and a sight of what

lay beyond. As the aged portal finally opened with an agonized screech

that caught the breath in their throats, they were able to peer inside.

Surprisingly, what lay behind the door was exactly what they expected.

Darkness.

A wall of it, more solid than the door just opened. An impenetrable,

impregnable screen against their curiousity, and an implacable voice

for their fears, screaming at them to turn away, to cower and flee

back to their old lives of ignorance and comfort, lest they unleash

a host of demons that could never again be contained. A few among them

started to quaver.

Lewis, however, left no one doubtful. Shining a futile light into the

darkness, he cut the hesitant atmosphere with a simple "Let's go,

everyone," before adding a similar commmand in Japanese.

A narrow bar of artificial light pierced the blackness, accompanying

the people who were now entering, one at a time, through the newly

opened door. The first handful carried compact assault rifles, their

goggles supplementing the meager light leaking in from outside. What

illumination there was played off the dust-coated walls as the first

infiltrators looked around, finally nodding to each other and to the

people outside, saying that it was all right.

The others started coming in. These people did not carry weapons, and

showed varying degrees of apprehension towards the armed men who'd come

in first.

"I doubt there's much here to be afraid of," Misato said, ducking in

through the door.

"Like I said," Lewis responded, still outside, "It's one of those

things you just have be sure about." The big American came in a few

moments later, followed by the last of his men. "Everyone here?" he

asked, needlessly. "All right. Who feels like leading the way?"

Shinji was the first to speak up. "Actually, Ayanami had volunteered

for that. She..." He paused, as by this point everyone in the sizeable

group was now staring straight at him. Some of them were at least

recognizeable, but others, namely the Americans standing a little

further off, were nothing more than dark silhouettes, the slight

reflection of light off their goggles the only indication they were

looking at him.

Shinji recovered quickly. "...she probably knows the layout better

than anyone else."

Lewis immediately looked to Misato, who seemed to recognize what he was

asking. She responded by shaking her head vigorously no. "This place

is a maze," she said aloud. "Don't look at me."

"All right then," Lewis said, resignedly. "Ms. Ayanami, if you

will...?" he asked, gesturing down the hallway.

The armed men stiffened a little as Rei passed them. Their grips on

their weapons tightened a bit, but they still kept their control, using

their guns more as flashlights than anything else at the moment.

Rei started walking without any sort of preamble. She maneuvered down

the abandoned hall, walking quickly even though she had no light of her

own. The others followed.

"Where are we going?" someone asked.

"To the command center," Rei answered, without turning to look at the

speaker. "Central Dogma."

Around them, the halls of NERV echoed their footsteps, and their

nervous breaths.

* * *

The journey that followed was one that would haunt their dreams for

quite some time.

At first they walked along a straight, wide path. It was some kind of

bridge, spanning a dark crevasse, coming from darkness and leading to

darkness, the ground shaking just enough from their footsteps to make

everyone tread lightly. The floor was revealed only in the short span

of feeble light the Americans had brought with them. Rei led, her form

a pale ghost in the dark, her shadow a black omen against the light.

Lewis followed ten paces behind with men flanking him, some of them

nervously scanning the void with their lasers, as if to unmask imagined

foes.

Misato followed Lewis, trying to shepherd the children behind her,

though there was no mistaking the worry in her eyes. Shinji and Asuka

followed her side-by-side, Shinji with a dull look of ingrained fear

and Asuka trying to hide her own. Ariel and Kensuke trailed them,

Kensuke doing his damndest to swallow the lump in his throat and Ariel

looking the least scared of any of them. In fact, the white-haird girl

looked strangely excited, almost eager to see what lay ahead. Another

squad of Lewis's men brought up the rear, no less susceptible to fear

with their gear and guns than any of their compatriots leading the way

into the blackness.

No one dared utter a word, as if afraid it might be an invitation for

the dark to rise up and consume them. The only sounds they heard were

their own heartbeats, and their footsteps on the cold tile floor. Of

course, that did not include the sounds they _thought_ they heard.

Occasionally someone would peer over the edge, dart their eyes

nervously, or intensely follow a speck of dust, all in apprehensive

attempts to find who - or what - they thought was nearby. In the dark,

there was no sanctuary, no safe haven, no place where enemies might

spring out at any minute without any notice, and it began to wear them

down, sleep-deprived Shinji most of all. Unable to concentrate with so

little sleep and growing wearier by the minute trying to fend off

the imaginary threats clawing at all edges of his vision, he began to

succumb. He tried his best to focus on the task at hand, his mind

mutely repeating instructions to his body - left foot forward, right

foot forward, left foot forward, right foot trip, left foot tangle,

whole body fall down awkwardly -

He never heard the sound of his fall, and he barely even felt the pain

of impact. What he did know was when he looked up, every barrel of

every gun carried by the Americans was pointed squarely at his head,

his body cast into shades of red from the multitude of lasers resting

on him.

Somewhere in the distance he heard someone speaking in English:

"Gentleman, while I do acknowledge that taking the safety off your

weapons is a prudent precaution given the circumstances, I will

recommend you all for demotions unless you take your fingers off

your triggers, and your sights off our VIP, _now_."

The guns were reluctantly drawn away, to be replaced by a flashlight

glaring down. A girl's blurry face soon eclipsed its light.

"Shinji-kun, we'll never get there unless you learn how to walk."

Though he could feel the blush spreading in his cheeks, he could only

reply "Yeshhh...Asshuka...sshhho tired..."

"C'mon, we'll help you up." He felt two arms lift him up, and soon he

was between Asuka's and Ariel's shoulders. As the world refocused, he

could hear Kensuke's envious chuckle somewhere in the distance. His

senses forced to restart, he slowly became aware that something was

missing, but he couldn't tell what, at least not immediately.

"Rei..." the name escaped his lips before he could stop it, but he

realized what it meant. The red-eyed girl was nowhere to be seen.

"What?" said Asuka, leaning her head over Shinji's shoulder to better

hear what he said. Shinji ignored this gesture as he continued to call

out.

"Rei? _Rei_? Where are - "

A hand promptly clamped down on his mouth, courtesy of Asuka, as she

muttered a "Baka!" in his ear. Lewis was giving him a hard look, even

as Shinji's voice reverberated from wall to unseen wall, drowning

everything else out for a few tense seconds. It might as well have

been an eternity, as his voice traveled down the hallways ahead of them

like a peal of thunder.

When it ended, Lewis spoke in a hard whisper.

"Well, thank you very much. That just gave away our position to anyone

here. Thanks to you, our journey is now much hard - " Another noise

interrupted him.

It sounded like a shuffling drop, almost mechanical in its rhythm. It

might have been rubble falling in the distance, but it was hard to tell

with all the echoes. However, it was definitely heading towards them,

and with all the noise, it was definitely something large.

Lewis wasted no time. His hand flashed through a few gestures too

quickly for anyone but the troops to follow, and, his men circled

around him and the others. They were plunged into darkness as the

troops switched off their lamps and lowered their night-vision goggles

down over their eyes. Those without guns - namely the children and

Misato - ducked down in the centre of the protective circle, buckling

down as the sound came closer even as a cacophony of echoes threatened

to deafen them.

The sound stopped.

Shinji waited, his pulse thrumming in his ears. Even as a young boy,

he had never been afraid of the dark; he had never seen what was so

terrible. Just because you couldn't see was no reason to be scared.

Now, though, he understood. The terror of the unknown had descended

upon the group of them. He could feel the shooting pain of Asuka's

fingers digging into his arm, but he said nothing; he didn't even know

if he was breathing, right now.

If only the soldiers had thought to give him a flashlight! Just

something to break the pall of darkness with, something for those

without night vision to see with. Even if it would give away their

position, even if it would only lead whatever-it-was straight to them,

he was willing to risk it. Just to be able to see what it _was_...

Faint red lines traced out in the darkness, a pitifully feeble response

to his silent plea for sight. They probed the blackness like thin

fingers, searching. Finally, though, one of them lit on something, a

tiny red dot appearing on something ahead of them. It was followed

soon afterwards by a dozen other lights, tracing out the same object.

Shinji was on his feet, tearing free of Asuka's grasp for a moment.

The girl grabbed at him, tried to drag him back down to safety. She

said nothing, but the insistance of her grip was as poignant as any

shouting she could ever manage.

"At ease," came a sudden voice, sharp and commanding, in English.

Shinji and everyone around him jumped at the sudden sound.

One by one, the laser sights of the Americans began to switch off,

replaced by the brighter flashlights. They highlighted the form ahead

of them: the pale shape of Rei.

"Christ, girl," Lewis was muttering, though in the dead silence it

carried over to all of them. "What're you thinking? You _want_ thirty

rounds in you?"

"I apologize," Rei said, in the same quiet, carrying tone. "I did not

notice you had fallen behind, and the walls are excessively vibratory

in this sector."

"Shit," Lewis cursed, turning on his heel, facing the Japanese on the

floor. He holstered his gun and gestured for them to follow along.

"Come on," he said, quietly. "Think we're all gettin' jumpy."

"There is nothing to be afraid of," Rei commented. She looked up, into

the dark expanse spread out above them. "Nothing can harm you, unless

you let it. This place is dead."

A chill went through some of them at Rei's choice of words. But they

soon got up, following along in the previous order. Asuka didn't

bother chewing out Shinji for his impetuousness earlier; she seemed too

relieved to bother with that, at least not yet.

* * *

Shinji soon lost track of time in the dark. He only knew that at some

point they'd gotten off that bridge, and that he had walked far enough

for his legs to feel like they might give out completely. It was all

he could do to keep on walking in the oppressive dark, even supported

as he was by Asuka and Ariel. By contrast the two didn't seem to mind -

Asuka even seemed to be enjoying her job. That he could understand,

but Ariel? The girl looked like she had never done a day of hard work

in her life, though she was showing less fatigue than Asuka. Come to

think of it, she'd maintained her grip on him as well, back there in

the dark when he'd stood up. But even when everyone else had been

ready to run, Ariel hadn't seemed troubled in the least. That was odd

indeed. But he didn't waste much time thinking about it; dwelling on

things like that would only make him nervous. He took solace in the

fact that at least Rei knew where they were going.

Did she?

He looked past the broad shoulders of Colonel Lewis to catch a glimpse

of the pale girl, still looking like a ghost in the beam of the

flashlights. She was walking like she always did, neither acknowledging

the darkness around them nor the sounds of increasing fatigue behind

her, heading straight on towards some goal in the void that to her was

as clear as day. To look at her do something was never to witness just

an act; if she did anything it was without reservation, guilt, or

prejudice, only dedication, steadfastness, and...strength?

Fatalism? Or maybe just boredom?

Regardless, he decided to broach the subject.

"Where are we?" he said, sounding louder in the dark than he wanted to.

Rei stopped, as did everyone. Maybe it was a question that he shouldn't

have posed.

Slowly turning around, Rei faced him with an unreadable expression. She

was the best Shinji knew at hiding things behind a face, and unlike

other people her crimson eyes would never betray her - unless she

wanted him to see something. This time, there was nothing as she gave

her answer.

"The road to Central Dogma."

Some people began to sputter.

"I do not know the purpose of this place. But you have been here

before."

Silence abruptly reigned again.

^Now who did she just say that last bit to?^ Shinji wondered, as they

resumed their journey. It wasn't long before they stopped again.

"What is it?" Misato asked, stepping towards Lewis. He raised one

fist, however, in the hand signal ordering a stop. Misato complied,

more out of surprise than anything else.

The Americans at the front of the group were whispering to each other.

Shinji couldn't make out what they were saying, but he could tell they

were nervous. He followed the flickering pools of light cast by the

flashlights and saw what it was that had gotten so much attention.

An empty uniform, its color long faded with time, but still bearing

some shred of the NERV insignia on the chest. It had fallen to the

ground, as though previously it had been walking of its own accord.

That alone would have been enough to garner some attention, but there

was something else about it...

The uniform had several holes in it, in an even spread over the chest.

As one of the soldiers prodded it with his toe, it became evident that

some of these holes were mirrored in the back, having punched straight

through.

Some more nervous muttering could be heard, as the Americans had

started looking around. There were pockmarks on the wall, the

otherwise-perfect tile ruined by holes drilled into it by...by what?

"What the hell happened here?" someone asked.

The lights were panning up and down the hallway, now. All along it

were uniforms just like the first one, each of them fallen forgotten to

the ground, each with its own set of small holes.

"If there were any bodies..." Lewis said, clearly to the children and

Misato, as he used Japanese, "...I'd say this was a firefight...no, not

that," he continued, picking up one of the uniforms. "A slaughter."

"What makes you say that?" Shinji asked, comprehension already dawning

on him, but his conscious mind refusing to believe.

"Look at this one," Lewis said, turning around the uniform he held. A

pair of holes were sitting dead-center on the chest. "That's

professional. You want someone down, _fast_..." he dropped the

uniform, and drew his gun, cocking it and aiming it at the wall. You

go bang, bang, two in the chest," he explained, using his laser sight

on the wall. The sight moved up on the wall by a few inches. "Then

bang, one in the head. Down, no questions asked."

Misato was following the search of the other soldiers, some of whom had

moved out ahead, prodding some of the empty uniforms as though there

was something to be found in them. "Some were machine gunned," she

commented.

"Yeah..." Lewis agreed, nodding solemnly. "Poor bastards...this whole

place was a shooting gallery." He cocked an eyebrow at Misato. "Don't

suppose you have an explanation?"

Misato's brow furrowed, as her mind tried to work. Shinji could see

the struggle on her face, having suffered it himself on a multitude of

occasions: the attempt to remember something your mind refused to

recall.

"There was some trouble," she said finally. "Near the end, NERV was

being invaded by..." she shook her head helplessly. "I don't know.

I'm sorry."

"S'alright," Lewis said, holstering his gun. "Whoever came through

here...they're long gone. Like that girl said," he commented, toeing

the uniform at his feet.

"This place is dead."

* * *

Though none knew it, Rei was true to her word. However, no one can

know - or foresee - everything.

Unbeknownst to all, a drop of dark, shimmering liquid made its way

down from a cracked pipe, across the slope of the ceiling and hovered

over the party as they walked.

As if possessing sentience it moved above several members of the party,

hovering above one, then moving onto the next. No one paid it any heed,

for fatigue was dragging their eyes down. No one bothered to look at

the drop as it moved above Misato's head, then Lewis's, then Ariel's,

and then finally above the head of a dark-haired boy too tired to

take note, too busy inspecting the floor as weariness demanded, too

busy occupying himself with what did not matter.

It was all too easy.

Silent, the drop fell from the ceiling -

- and trailed past Shinji's head to soak itself in the camouflage of

soldier right behind him.

A little later the soldier massaged his shoulder, wondering if the

kevlar vest's straps were chafing, but that concern abruptly died as

the group stopped and Rei informed them they were at the last door

between them and their destination.

* * *

Everyone was dumbstruck, looking around the place. The sheer _size_ of

Central Dogma was astounding. Even now, after the chaos both during

and after Third Impact, it was enough to take your breath away. Parts

of the cavernous ceiling had collapsed, but what remained standing was

so high up that even their flashlights were hard-pressed to pierce its

dark maw.

The room was broken up into several tiers, a literal representation of

the command hierarchy. Rei had led them onto the second highest level,

where the main support personnel had been stationed. Rubble cluttered

the floor, making footing treacherous.

That anything was still working was even more amazing than the room's

size. A handful of computers looked functional, indifferent to the

passage of time save for some illegible words burned into their dark

screens. Kensuke ran one finger over the cold metal casing of one,

coming away with a load of dust. It was only logical; the air cleaning

system must have failed some time shortly after Impact.

Kensuke had taken his camera out almost the moment he'd come in through

the door to this place. He'd been recording anything and everything

the whole way, though he had not accompanied this with his usual

chatter. Everyone else had been much the same way: although they

knew they'd find no one here living or dead, they still couldn't shake

off the feeling that they were in a tomb. In the cold air of the

command center, their breath steaming in the beams of the flashlights,

even the hardened soldiers seemed apprehensive of anything more than a

whisper.

Kensuke had found something, now. He zoomed in on a pile of fabric

that was on the floor, near one of the seats. As one of the

Americans' flashlights passed over the pile, he couldn't help muttering

under his breath:

"What the heck?"

In the silent atmosphere, the quiet statement was thunderous. Heads

turned to look. In moments, six flashlights were all centered on the

object, lighting it up brightly.

It was some kind of tan bodysuit, a uniform of some kind. Asuka came

forward, tentatively grabbing it and lifting it up a little. The

collar crackled with the sound of dried fluid long since seeped into

the fabric. Wincing at the noise, Asuka looked down to the chest area.

"It's one of ours..." she muttered. Again, the quiet whisper was like

a shout against the silence.

Misato and Maya exchanged glances, then looked to the other piles,

sitting on the floor.

"Aoba," Misato said, checking another one.

"Fuyutsuki," said Maya, to yet another. She looked up, to the rest of

them. "This...this is where I...where we all died..." her gaze

shifting down to the uniform on the floor, she continued. "But...here

we all are..."

"Quite a collection," Lewis commented, trying to sound casual. "You

know these people?"

Misato just nodded mutely. Maya didn't even acknowledge that the

American had spoken; instead, her eyes were rooted on the last

collapsed uniform, sitting at the far end of the command station. From

where she knelt, she could see the laptop that had been carefully set

down on the floor, next to the uniform. That computer, too, was dead,

its battery long since used up. Burned into its screen were the faint

words, "I need you".

Rei was the only one unperturbed, calmly observing their remembrance as

she stood by the railing of the control center, her eyes fixed intently

on the darkness down below them. Her gaze flickered to one side as she

heard a measured set of footsteps approaching.

^Enjoying your homecoming?^ Ariel asked, the sarcasm clearly evident.

Rei at first wondered why no one had heard the girl speak. But then

she realized that Ariel's lips hadn't moved at all. Her voice had

sounded in Rei's head.

^An interesting discovery, I must confess,^ Ariel thought at her.

^Something about this place...it's amplifying something within me.

Take this as a courtesy, Zero. Normally I could only communicate in

this manner with my brethren.^

Rei did not gratify the girl with a reaction to the telepathy. She

simply answered Ariel's first question.

^I am doing as I was asked,^ she thought. She said nothing of how it

was odd that Ariel would know this place had been her home for as long

as she could remember.

Ariel crossed her arms over her chest, leaning back against the

railing, next to Rei.

^Do you enjoy seeing them greet their own corpses?^ Ariel thought. ^If

only I'd been granted the same privilege...^ she continued,

not knowing that Rei could still receive that last bit.

^I have said that no harm will come to them in this place, unless

they let it.^

^I've heard that before - or, more precisely, someone I know very well

has. But that is nothing compared to what _they_ are hearing.^

^What are they hearing?^

^You're a terrible liar no matter how you communicate, _Zero_. I was

dead, yes _dead_, then--thanks to _you_ - but even _I_ have some

inkling of what transpired here - even when it was happening, and even

after you had had your way with them.^

^What are they hearing?^

Ariel snickered quietly. ^Is it that difficult? Memories have always

been my forte. But this place is so thoroughly imbued with emotion,

even something like you should have no trouble picking it up. Open

your thoughts for yourself and listen.^

Though Rei had no intention of doing what Ariel told her, she couldn't

help but indulge her curiosity. Closing her eyes and opening her mind,

she listened.

And heard screams.

Cries from the NERV staff, being mercilessly slaughtered by soldiers

who understood as little about the situation as did their victims.

^Let them have it again!^

Cries of despair. Cries she had only heard as whispers on the way down

here. The walls were soaked with pain much more than they were with

now-vanished blood. Looking around, she could almost see what was

happening then; as if the empty uniforms on the floor had risen up--

like ghosts clawing from their graves--and were in the process of dying

all overagain.

^Ikari...did you find Yui?^ she could hear from the empty tan

bodysuit.

^Sempai...sempai!^ she heard from Maya's uniform, imbued as it was

with fear and . . . thankfulness?

Yet the cacophony did not end there. The voices ran deeper, harsher,

colder. Further into the past she went -

^Where's Shinji?!^

- into the depths beneath her feet, swept by the secondhand emotions -

^Nothing personal, kid.^

- by sorrow -

^We'll do the rest when you get back.^

- by kindness -

^I'll kill you all...kill you all...kill you all...^

- by rage -

^Mother?^

- by bewilderment -

^I knew you'd be here.^

- by expectation -

^Did we do the right thing?^

-by worry-

^Liar . . .^

- by betrayal -

^Take me to Yui...^

- and of hope gone so wrong.

There was something else though; something that she felt rising in her,

as if the ghosts's screams had awakened something long asleep in her

heart. It was dark, it was strong, and it was hungry. A low growl

resounded in her mind - following by a fearful roar that might have

shaken the Earth had it been real.

^Did we do the right thing?^ Maya's voice sounded in her head one

last time as she came out of her reverie.

Rei's eyes popped open as she heard a scream, this one real. Her first

reaction was to look at Ariel, still next to her. The girl's eyes were

also open. For just a moment, Rei could see something on the girl's

face: fear. Not from the shock of the quiet being so suddenly broken,

but fear of something else, something more deep-seated. Fear for her

own life. Had she also heard that beast, lurking in the darkness?

"What? What?" Misato was shouting out, shock raising the volume of her

voice.

Maya was seated up against the wall, having pushed as far away as she

could from the computer terminal. The woman was a shade of white most

of them hadn't even thought physically possible. Her wide eyes were

fixated on the uniform on the floor, the one she'd been looking at

earlier.

"What?" Misato asked, this time more quietly, kneeling down next to the

woman. Maya's jaw quivered, as she weakly pointed towards the cream uniform.

Asuka lifted the uniform's collar. "Ibuki," she read. She shook her

head. "Now that is just creepy." She looked at Maya, still up against

the wall. "I know it's weird seeing your old uniform," she began,

picking up the bodysuit. "But that's no reason toAAAAAAAHHHHH!!"

Asuka let out a scream of her own as something fell out of the uniform,

onto her chest. The dark shape tumbled to the floor as the girl

recoiled, jumping back two meters at least.

"It grabbed me," Maya choked out. "It...it tried to grab me..."

Lewis stepped forward. A combat knife slipped out of its sheath with

practiced ease, and he'd driven the hard steel through the thing,

neatly impaling it, before anyone could say anything more. Satisfied

that it was not moving, he lifted it up into the glow of the

flashlights for a closer inspection.

It was a hand.

The thing was old and dessicated, mummified fingers curling it into a

claw. Decaying flesh fell from the thing even as he looked.

"Ain't that pleasant," Lewis commented, throwing the knife and hand

over the railing. He shivered, mostly for show. It was enough to

elicit a few tense laughs from the other soldiers.

A long silence passed, but they heard no sound of the knife

hitting the ground. Everyone waited - including the soldiers, who

abruptly found Lewis's joke wanting.

They heard only silence.

Then, a long, almost mournful, groan of aged metal bending

and straining in some imaginably far distance, as if the moan of a

ghost disturbed sounded.

"What you all looking at me for?" said Lewis hoarsely.

Misato just shrugged helplessly, while Maya hugged herself tightly,

eyes glazing over. Lewis' eyes narrowed at the woman. Even though

he'd said he didn't want to know, he hadn't been able to avoid noticing

that the thing he'd just thrown away had been a right hand. His eyes

focused on Maya's own right hand, covered as always with a tight-

fitting glove. Maya was unconsciously flexing the fingers on that hand

now, as though to see if they were still there.

Ariel watched Maya curiously. ^So, even Zero was imperfect during her

damned ascension...a few resisted to the last."

"All right," he said loudly, turning away from the two Japanese women.

He stated a few short commands to the soldiers, in English. One of the

men asked him a question. Lewis's response was decidedly sarcastic.

"All right," he said again, switching languages. "I'm having a squad

stay up here, see if they can't get one of these machines working.

Johnson's gonna get a power line down here. Anyone wants to stay,

they're welcome. Anyone wants to turn around now, that's fine too."

He waited a moment, to let that sink in. "So, anyone up for going

further?"

After a long delay, Shinji nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Let's go a

little more."

"We can't turn back now," Asuka said, joining him.

Lewis nodded. "Ms. Ayanami?"

"I will go."

"Good. Then lead the way."

They started out. Maya stayed behind, but she was the only one who

made that choice. Kensuke looked as though he were considering it, but

only for a moment.

"Hey, Lewis-san?" he asked the American, as they proceeded deeper into

the installation. "What'd that guy ask? The one who went up to get

power."

"He asked what he should do if any of the scientist types say anything

about us messing around with their place. I told him to say they could

take it up with me, that's all."

Kensuke had the feeling Lewis's response had probably involved threats,

namely of a Land Rover driving through a few unfortunate scientists'

houses. But he put that aside. His camera came back up. Just for a

moment, he focused it on Ariel, who for the first time in this trip

down here wasn't too far from him. The girl looked tense about

something. He thought about asking her what it was.

But whatever words he may have had to say just wouldn't come out. Down

here, in the halls where death had roamed freely, he thought it best to

hold his peace, whenever necessary. Around him, the others seemed to

agree with him. They walked on in silence.

* * *

Deeper into the maze, they went. The passage finally came to a dead

end.

"So what now?" Asuka asked, putting her hands on her hips.

Rei glanced at Lewis, gesturing for his radio. After some hesitation,

he handed it over. "Ibuki-san," Rei said calmly, into the device.

"Yes?" came Maya's voice. The woman had calmed down considerably, but

she still sounded anxious.

"Are the computers active?"

"Well...I guess. The power feed's not very reliable, but we have

access to the first few levels of system architecture. Still trying to

remember all my passwords..." the last part was mumbled out, more to

herself than to anyone else.

"Access the part for system G-138," Rei asked. She then relayed a long

and complicated password.

"OK..." came Maya's voice, uncertain. "How'd you know - "

"Re-initialize the emergency reactor for the lower levels, Ibuki-san."

The tone of Rei's voice now sounded as though she was the superior

here, and Maya just her subordinate officer. Some annoyance came

through Maya's voice in her next communication.

"All right, _ma'am_, I think that's it."

Everyone jumped a little as the ground shivered under them.

"What the..." someone said, as the platform they stood on began to

descend. Around them, red emergency lights flashed on, putting

everything into crimson hues. A few soldiers still wearing their night

vision goggles grunted in mild pain, their goggles amplifying the light

a bit too much for their comfort. They switched off the gear, relying

instead on the blood-red lights and the more reliable glare from their

own flashlights.

They were riding some kind of elevator down. It seemed to be riding in

the center of a double helix, humming down the intricately curving

rails smoothly enough that they could almost convince themselves that

they weren't moving. Some of the rails looked damaged, one section

bent dangerously, but the elevator continued its descent all the same.

Misato let out a slow breath, as they rode the elevator. She

remembered this. Judging from the look on Shinji's face, he did, too.

She couldn't quite remember what came next, but she knew that she'd

seen it in the past at some point, and that it would all be painfully

familiar when she saw it again.

^At least I don't have to worry about finding _my_ old uniform down

here,^ she reasoned.

Rei's radio hissed. "...sato?" Maya's voice asked. "Misato? Are you

there?"

Rei obediently handed the radio over to the older woman. "Yeah?"

Misato asked into the device.

"Misato, I..." Maya's voice paused, then came back much more quietly,

so much so that Misato was forced to put the speaker to her ear.

"Misato, don't say anything, just yet. I don't think any of these

people up here can speak Japanese, but...just listen. Look, whatever

it is I turned on a minute ago gave us some more power up here, too. I

think I can access most of the system."

Misato waited for more. It came. "And, well...there was some kind of

alert from the sensory equipment. I guess one radar station somewhere

wasn't wiped out, because it was still transmitting data here. I

looked at it, and it told me there was some kind of...I guess it's an

invader, that's what the computer says...something off our coast. Of

Japan, I mean."

Another pause. "Okay, I'm getting a better look at it now. Misato,

it's a nuclear submarine, just off the east coast of Japan. I think

it's an American model, a big missile carrier. But I don't see why..."

"Just wait," Misato whispered into the radio.

"Do you think it's anything important?" Maya asked, more loudly, and

definitely more nervously.

"I don't know, probably not," Misato lied. "Just forget about it for

now."

"OK."

Misato handed the radio back to Rei. A few moments later, she couldn't

resist glancing at Lewis, briefly. The man looked as confident as

ever, even adjusting the sunglasses hanging out of his shirt pocket.

Misato had no idea why the man would've brought sunglasses down here,

especially when it was the middle of the night outside, to boot. But

those weren't really her concern, right now.

She remembered what she'd seen, during the last attack. Lewis on the

phone, reading a code off of some slip of paper. She also remembered

how the normally open American clammed up whenever she tried to bring

up the topic. She had her suspicions about what Maya had found.

Confirmation would have to wait, though. Preferably when the man

didn't have a troop of armed men around to silence anyone who asked too

many questions. Would he do that? She wasn't sure. Lewis made

threats to pretty much everyone, though they sounded casual enough. At

he moment, Misato wasn't willing to take the risk of the threats

suddenly becoming serious.

"Taking it as it comes, Katsuragi?" Lewis asked, noting her attention

out the corner of his eye.

Misato stiffened for a moment, but then nodded. "Doing what I can."

"Fair enough." Lewis shrugged his shoulders back, looking up to the

ceiling. "This place is pretty damn impressive. Got security like one

of our nuke silos. Better, even."

"It should," Misato replied, trying to sound casual. "The things we

stored here were more dangerous than nukes." At a questioning glance

from Lewis, she continued. "The Evas. Three just like the one

outside."

"Damn." It was his only reply.

They continued their descent.

* * *

So close, and yet so far. That seemed the appropriate phrase, at the

moment.

Some new, large room stood less than a dozen meters away according to

Maya's estimate. But they'd reached a dead end. At least half a meter

of solid steel blocked the way, making an impenetrable wall.

"It's locked," Shinji said to no one in particular, looking at the

blank wall that sharply ended the hallway they were in. He pointed up,

to a nearly invisible crease running along the width of the wall.

"It's a...door, I think," he said. "But it's locked."

"That is correct," Rei agreed, standing not too far off from him.

Shinji glanced at her, but the girl's eyes were rooted firmly on the

dead end in front of them.

Lewis took the opportunity to scan the door with his flashlight.

"I think there's something written here . . . " he said, as he began

to read aloud the warning above the door:

"KEEP OUT. Something in Japanese below it, probably RESTRICTED AREA.

MAIN LCL PLANT:

"What's LCL, anyway?" Lewis muttered, half a question.

Misato stepped up next to Lewis, following along as he read the rest of

the message.

CIRCULATION LINE NO.3. TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT. VIOLATORS

WILL BE LIABLE FOR PENALTIES OF UP TO 10 YEARS IMPRISONMENT, $100,000

FINE, OR BOTH.

"Hmph. And to think back home all Area 51 had was a sign saying 'DO NOT

TRESPASS. USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED.' What are you hiding here,

anyway? A flying saucer?"

Misato blinked, saying nothing. Her eyes flickered with recognition,

briefly. Her breath caught in her throat, enough to get Lewis'

attention.

"Something wrong, Katsuragi?"

"Kaji..." she muttered. Shaking her head, she answered the man. "It's

just...I remember being down here before. A man I knew...showed me

this place."

"Hell of a place to go on a date." Dead silence answered this feeble

attempt at a joke. "Well then. Any way to open it?" Lewis asked,

gruffly. "Or do we turn around and go back?"

Rei mutely pointed to the wall. Most of the group looked, following

her finger. Sure enough, next to the door was a tiny slot, just about

big enough to admit something the size of a credit card.

"A keycard is used here," Rei explained. "Only three such cards were

ever made."

Lewis stared at the small device, looking so insignificant, but barring

their entrance as well as a castle gate. "Interesting," he said,

quietly. "Anything worth _that_ kind of security...be wrong for us to

just leave it behind, eh?" Finally, he looked back down to one of his

men and gave a nod.

"See what you can do with it, Johnson."

"Yes, sir."

The Americans backed down the hallway a few meters, as Johnson went to

the huge door and started looking at it intently, as though able to

open it with intensity alone. Shinji could only shake his head. If

staring at the door would open it, the thing would have opened the

second Rei had even gotten in view of the massive door.

"What're you people hidin' back here, anyway?" Lewis asked. No one

offered any response. Misato looked for a moment as though she might

say something, but ultimately she just shrugged, helplessly. Much like

the other Japanese, her memory was a blank spot, as far as these lower

levels went.

There hadn't been much to find, so far. The destruction that had

plagued the upper levels of NERV had been visited on this place ten

times over. The whole trip had been a long walk through ruins. Even

though it was smashed, they'd been able to tell that important things

had been kept here. But the place just hadn't been built to withstand

the sort of force that had come down on it two years ago.

"Ibuki, can you get these doors open?" Asuka was asking, into the

borrowed radio.

"I think so," Maya's voice crackled back in response. "I can get the

key card scanner online, and if the doors are powered then they should

open if we can crack the code on it. It's going to take awhile."

"How long?"

A pause. "I don't know, Soryu. That part of NERV's operations goes

straight through the MAGI. Only sem...Akagi knows all the passwords,

so I'm going to have to work on it." Another pause. "The system shows

that Commander Ikari locked it down to all but his authorization some

years ago. Akagi could probably hack through it, or - " she paused for

a second " - I remember she told me about some 'back door', once. But

hacking could take days, and there's no telling if that 'back door' is

still functional."

Asuka let out an exasperated sigh in response to this. "Great," she

said, not to Maya this time. "So we came all this way for nothing."

"Just hang on a minute, fraulein," Lewis said, holding up one hand as

though trying to slow Asuka down.

"I'll hang on," Asuka replied, a little annoyed. "But we still have to

go back. Ibuki's a genius at this stuff, probably at least as good as

Akagi...well, maybe not, but she's good. It takes an electronics

expert to..."

"Johnson's not an electronics expert."

Asuka gave the man an annoyed glance for the interruption, then

continued. "Whatever. That just means it'd take your man even longer.

We just have to try again later."

Lewis was about to reply, but was cut off as Johnson came back down the

hall. The two spoke briefly in English, Lewis finally nodding and

patting Johnson on the back as the other man jogged back down the

hallway.

"OK, we're headed back!" Asuka was announcing, her hands on her hips.

"Lewis," she said to the American, "do you have anyone who can back up

Ibuki in hacking the MAGI?"

Lewis shrugged. "Yeah," he replied, noncommittally. "But like I said,

Johnson's not an electronics expert. By the way, you might want to

cover your ears."

Despite the years of schooling, Shinji was still unfamiliar with the

English language. However, he'd seen enough of Kensuke's old war

movies to know what "fire in the hole," meant. So when Johnson yelled

out that exact phrase, he reflexively plugged his ears.

The next thing he knew, the very ground under them shook. Shinji

stumbled, trying to catch his balance when the sound hit. Even with

his ears plugged, it was like a tidal wave washing over him. A roaring

sound, ripping through his skull and drowning out his perceptions of

everything other than just how _loud_ this was.

When it finally passed, he opened his eyes. He found he was on the

floor, having dropped to his knees from the pain. Even now, with the

sound long passed, his head was pounding. Removing his fingers from

his ears, he found that his ears were ringing. But even over than

noise, he could hear Lewis 'talking' to Asuka. It was a relative term

to say talking, as the man was practically shouting so he could be

heard.

"I tell ya!" he shouted. "Nothing quite like a metal hallway to

amplify sound, eh?"

"WHAT?" Asuka shouted back.

"That's what you get for not listening!" Lewis replied. "You probably

can't even hear what I'm saying, can you?"

"WHAT?"

"I got the best job in the world, I tell you!" Lewis proclaimed,

turning away from Asuka and heading down the now-smoking hallway. "I

get a new reason to love it every day!"

Shinji could only shake his head and follow along behind, but not

before retrieving Asuka, leading her down the hallway by the hand and

hoping her hearing would come back soon.

Now at the end of the hallway, there was a door. Rather, there was a

doorway cut perfectly into the existing door, which remained closed. A

rectangle, roughly the size of a doorway, had been sliced out of the

thick steel. The edges of the hole looked like they were glowing.

"That was just flat-out brazen," Misato was saying.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Maj...Colonel, don't you know what could've happened?" the woman

asked, angrily. Now that most people's hearing was returning, they

were speaking at a more normal volume.

"I had some idea."

"Some idea?! Colonel, you saw the security on the door alone! Who's

to say there weren't a dozen other defenses you didn't see? Ones

designed to carry out that 'shoot on sight' order?"

"I figured as much."

"Your fireworks could've set them all off! We'd have been mowed down!"

"Yeah, I know."

Misato shook her head. "Well, if you knew, why'd you _blast_ when you

knew we were going to get the door open anyway?"

Lewis leaned down a little, so his eyes were on a level with Misato's.

He didn't have to lean much, but the condescension was still evident.

"It's quicker," he said, matter-of-factly.

Lewis stood up straight again. "All right, everyone in!" he ordered.

He looked back to Misato. "Sorry Katsuragi, but according to what I'm

hearing, I've got a day, maybe two, before that other big robot comes

back, probably pissed off about that arm you people hacked off. So I'm

in a hurry, right now. Anything we find that might be useful,

well..." he shrugged and gestured to the freshly cut hole. "Works on

the nuke silos."

Shinji found he really couldn't blame the man. He wasn't too thrilled

about this American taking risks with other people's lives like that,

but at least Lewis knew what had to be done. He followed the others

through the hole, everyone going one at a time, as soon as the metal

had cooled enough to allow people through.

He was not prepared for what waited on the other side.

Much like the rest of NERV, it was a simple room, but built to massive

proportions. This room could have held all of Central Dogma easily.

The floor didn't continue very far, though, ending not far from the

door. Beyond that, the ground terminated in a sudden drop into a pool,

partially filled with what looked like LCL.

^If this was ever full,^ Shinji thought, looking over the huge expanse,

^it'd have been more LCL than I'd ever seen.^ He looked around a

little more. ^Where'd it all go, I wonder?^

The room carried one feature, again simple yet massive. A red

cross, built to such dimensions that it would have easily stood as tall

as an Eva, was affixed to the far wall. Its otherwise perfectly smooth

surface was marred at either end of the crosspiece, by bolts the size

of which Shinji could not believe.

^It looks like something was held...no, bound...no, _crucified_ there,^

he thought. ^But...what?^

Something tugged at his consciousness, a memory he pushed back by

reflex. Ever since awakening on the beach so many years ago, there'd

been many, many things he'd made himself forget, for fear that

recollection would drive him mad. Now, standing in this room, he could

almost _feel_ them fighting to get out of their cage, the memories from

so long ago threatening to implode his skull. His ears began ringing.

He closed his eyes, trying to force it back, resorting to that old

tactic. But for whatever reason, his mind refused to let him run this

time. Shinji covered his ears, as the floodgates of his memory began

to give way.

Pain. His hands had been punctured by something. He'd been picked up,

lifted off the ground, and pierced like whatever poor thing had been

crucified here. Then there'd been something else, something powerful,

sliding into his body, through his side...

A brief flash, a glimpse of Ariel, appeared in his vision, at this

thought. He could not fathom why.

The ground had been long gone, reduced to a vision far below him. And

yet still, he'd been rising, rising ever higher into the sky. The air

had become thick, crackling with energy, as something had come up from

below him...

...something powerful...

...something _huge_...

...something...familiar...

He shook. His skull felt like it was caving in and exploding all at

once. He shook again, and his eyes burst open.

He was face to face with a familiar set of blue eyes, and became aware

that the shaking was not of his own volition. He could feel pressure

on his arms, so hard that the circulation was being cut off.

"Hey!" Asuka was shouting. "Hey, are you there?"

Shinji shuddered, feeling his own fingers up on his face, digging into

the skin. He slowly lowered his hands, looking at his palms, briefly

seeing them punctured, bloodless, helpless. But when he blinked, they

were whole again, still bearing some burn marks from before, when he'd

tried to reach Rei, during the last battle with the Evas.

"I'm...okay..." he said, looking back at Asuka with slightly glazed

eyes. He shook his head. "Asuka, I'm fine. I'm here."

The girl kept staring at him, the worry evident on her face. But after

a few moments, she backed away from him, releasing her deathgrip on his

shoulders.

"Baka," she muttered, turning quickly away, showing him her back. She

looked down at her feet. "We should get out of here," she said,

quietly, to no one in particular. "There's...nothing here."

Shinji heard her, but his attention was not on her. His gaze had been

drawn elsewhere, to the edge of the lake of LCL. There, he could see a

familiar blue-haired girl, kneeling by the edge, holding something in

her hands.

But even as he watched, Rei stood, her stare still on the item held

protectively in her hands. She looked up suddenly, as though hearing

someone, though none of the people there had spoken. She turned

slowly, looking directly at Shinji.

Shinji could feel his eyes and face burning, not with embarassment, but

with something darker, something deadlier. He knew not its name but it

seized the breath in his throat and menaced his sight until he was left

seeing the same shade of red as Rei's eyes.

Those eyes, those pools of crimson light returned his stare, but they

were not empty this time. Instead, they blazed with...defiance?

refusal? It was as if she was denying the accusation he didn't know

he was sending in his eyes, refusing to be marked 'guilty' over a crime

he had forgotten.

Her hands dropped to her sides, and Shinji saw, hanging from her

fingers, a set of broken glasses. With a flick of her wrist, the girl

cast them into the lake.

All the while, her eyes never left Shinji's.

* * *

Had anyone been looking at Ariel, they'd have wondered if something was

wrong with her. Shortly after seeing the cross, the girl's eyes had

widened considerably. She'd gone to her knees, looking not shocked,

but reverent. She'd folded her hands in front of her chest, closing

her eyes as though in prayer.

^Thank you, Mother,^ she thought to herself. ^For allowing me to be

the second of your true children to enter into this sanctum, both a

prison and a gateway to freedom. Though I am late...and you are

forever gone...I am here.^

^As am I.^

Ariel's eyes snapped open. She'd heard it, a voice sounding as though

it were right next to her. She did not turn her head, though. She'd

recognized the voice, and knew it did not come from any of those she

stood among. Hearing it, in such clarity, was enough to make her

tremble.

"We are done, here." Rei's voice said, aloud. "There is nothing more

to be found."

"Hell of a letdown," Lewis said. "What kind of moron builds a room

like this just to hold a big cross? You people come down here for

sermons?"

Ariel got to her feet, now aware of little other than the pulse ringing

in her ears. She'd immediately known who to look for, the second she'd

heard that voice in her mind. She turned slowly around, turning her

eyes to the opening in the door. She could just see Rei heading for it

now.

"Wait," she called, weakly. She started after the girl, heading for

the door.

"Wait," she said, a bit more loudly. "Don't go, not yet."

"Hey, what's this?" one of the American soldiers said, behind her.

Something in his voice made Ariel stop cold, whirling about where she

stood.

One soldier - a sergeant, she noticed in passing - was leaning over the

edge of the dry ground, absentmindedly rubbing at his shoulder. He

looked down into the small lake of LCL that lay below.

"No!" Ariel screamed. "Don't - !"

Too late. The soldier slipped on nothing, losing his balance and

tumbling forwards, splashing into the lake. Even though the lake

seemed depleted, he still sank entirely into it, drawn down by the

weight of his gear, not even having the time to cry out in surprise.

There was a little cursing as the other soldiers lowered a rope down

the wall of the pool and pulled the man who dropped back up to the

surface, laughing at the slip and helping the man get the congealed LCL

out of his gear, all completely oblivious to the fact that that was so

clear in Ariel's eyes.

Ariel tried to call out to them, but her throat had closed. She could

only back up, slowly, heading for the door. No conscious thought went

into her actions; simply the primal urge to prolong her own life.

She bumped into something solid. Ariel whirled, immediately greeted by

Rei's stoic face. Ariel started in surprise. A moment later though,

she did not care. Rei's eyes hardened, and Ariel heard the girl's

voice in her mind.

^Is this your doing?^ she asked. Ariel said nothing; speech was slow

in coming to her, and her thoughts were too muddled by panic to compose

a telepathic response. She opened her mouth to try answering, but was

cut off, as a gunshot rang out.

Rei's crimson eyes read Ariel's face in a heartbeat, and she

understood. Grabbing Ariel with strength belied by her small arms, Rei

shoved the girl behind her, in the general direction of the doorway.

Everyone else was frozen. In the hand of the soldier that had fallen

into the LCL, a handgun was firmly seated, its barrel smoking. The

spent shell casing hit the ground just before the body of one of the

other soldiers. Suddenly the floor was stained with more blood than

some of them had ever thought possible.

The soldier with the gun was turning slowly, surely, towards the rest

of the group. Lewis shoved his way forward.

"Gray, what in the world - "

He was cut off as another shot cracked. Lewis jerked, his body

twisting to one side suddenly. Yet another bullet hit him in the gut,

doubling him over. The big man collapsed in a heap, even as the glow

of laser light streaked through the smoky air, centering on the chest

of the armed soldier, whose body was now spattered with blood, slowly

dissolving into the LCL on his clothes.

All other sound was then drowned out instantly, by the barking reports

of assault rifles. Many of the Japanese slammed their hands over their

ears, though their eyes remained wide open, not believing how quickly

things had happened.

The attacking soldier was blasted backwards by the impact of a dozen

rounds into his chest. He almost flew, lifted off the ground and

driven back into the LCL.

"We need to evacuate," Rei announced as soon as the echos of the shots

had faded. Her voice was as calm as ever, but loud enough that

everyone could hear her, even those who still sat with their hands over

their ears.

Shinji and the others looked at her. For the moment, no one bothered

asking how she knew what to do. They only knew that, at the moment,

the cold determination that was always on Rei's face was something they

needed to see.

The soldiers weren't listening, however. They were on Lewis in an

instant, kneeling down next to their fallen commander.

"We need to get out," Rei said. "Now." People began to move. It was

limited to the Japanese, but it was better than nothing. Already, they

could hear something moving in the LCL.

They scrambled through the opening in the door, forced to go one at a

time. They tried not to look back, even as they heard more shouts from

the Americans, and the 'click' of trigger safeties being released.

"What the hell?" Asuka shouted, once she was out in the hallway with

the others. "What's going on?"

She got no responses, though; several of the Japanese turned to look in

surprise as they heard Lewis groan. The man crawled through the

doorway, waving off the assistance of his men.

"Get off," he muttered. "It's not that bad."

"We need to evacuate," Rei said, quietly. This time, though, no one

listened.

"Lewis-san?" Kensuke asked, disbelievingly.

"How're you even standing?" Misato asked, also rather surprised at the

American's apparent health. "Don't tell me bullets avoid you."

"Only when it really matters," Lewis replied, grinning a little. He

rapped one fist into his chest, making a loud thud of knuckles on

something more substantial than just flesh.

"Ounce of prevention," he said, still grinning a little. His

nonchalant attitude, however, evaporated entirely at the sound of

something wet moving over the floor of the room they'd just come from.

"You people get out of here," he said to the Japanese. He jerked his

chin at one of the soldiers, saying something with just his eyes. The

soldier apparently understood, as he nodded and tossed Lewis his rifle.

"Conway'll get you out of here," Lewis explained, even as his hands

readied the rifle with smooth, reflexive motions. "This is our

problem," he finished, as the safety clicked off.

"This is not your affair," Rei cut in. Everyone looked to her again.

If she noticed the attention, she didn't show it. "You cannot defeat

him. You cannot kill him."

It was Lewis' turn to look incredulous. "I know a few things about

guns, girl," he snapped back. He muttered something under his breath

as he turned towards the door, though adrenaline raised his voice to

the point where everyone could hear it:

"I know how to deal with traitors, too."

"Hey," Misato said, getting Lewis' attention. The big man met her

eyes. "Don't do anything stupid, down here. Something's wrong with

this."

"Yeah, I know," he grumbled. He paused, as though thinking of

something. "You know how to work a gun, Katsuragi?"

Misato hesitated a moment before nodding. "Haven't used one since

Third - "

She was cut off as Lewis smoothly removed his .45 from his hip holster

and tossed it to her. "Fifteen rounds. You gotta use 'em, make 'em

count, Katsuragi."

"Colonel," Misato said, confused, even as her hands snatched the gun

out of the air. Switching her grip, she held it in one hand, finger

resting on the trigger. Even if her mind had forgotten, her hands

remembered what to do with a gun. "Are you sure?"

"Don't worry, I'm set," he said, patting his rifle. "And if this

sucker don't do the job..." he reached behind his back, coming back

with a black handgun that looked like a cannon trying its damndest to

be a pistol. "I'll get by."

Kensuke's eyes widened, looking at the gun. "Desert Eagle..." he

whispered, under his breath.

"Just get out of here," Lewis repeated. Something appeared in the pool

of light that was now fixed on the door, and the large handgun vanished

behind his back again. All further conversation was instantly ruled

out, by the deafening artificial thunder of semiautomatic fire.

Asuka immediately gestured for everyone to leave. Seeing someone whose

command they knew to be true, the Japanese personnel followed, along

with the man Conway, whose gun Lewis now had. Asuka now led the way,

moving through the corridors back the way they'd come.

The crack of gunfire continued for almost a full minute, even after the

screams of men began to get mixed in with them. Everyone kept moving.

The distance didn't seem to make any difference on the noise made; it

seemed there truly was nothing like a metal corridor for amplifying

sound.

Asuka led them at a rapid pace, just shy of running, as she knew they

could do without the panic a full-blown run would probably induce into

everyone. Shinji caught up to the girl as they moved. By the time

they'd reached the elevator, Shinji touched Asuka's shoulder.

"What?" Asuka snapped, the strain evident in her expression.

"We should wait," Shinji replied almost immediately, getting it out

before hesitation could get the better part of him. "This is the only

way out."

Asuka looked like she was going to say something to the contrary.

"Please," Shinji interrupted. He felt his voice shake with fear, an

emotion he could see mirrored in Asuka's eyes. It wasn't fear of death

that was coming through, though that emotion was certainly present in

the boy. Rather, it was the fear that Rei had been right in what she'd

said earlier: that guns would not work. The steadily declining volume

of fire coming from the other end of the hall was no help in allaying

this fear.

"All right," Asuka said finally. "Two minutes," she added on

immediately afterwards, holding up two fingers for emphasis. "No

longer, got it?"

"Fine."

They boarded the elevator. The one American pulled a .45 from a hip

holster. Misato did likewise, chambering the gun, snapping off the

safety, and cocking it for good measure. Some of the others clenched

their fists, having no other weapons at their disposal.

It was then that the lights began to flicker. The blood-red emergency

lights switched off, then on again for a heart-stopping moment, then

finally died utterly, plunging the group into darkness. The group

tensed, but raw adrenaline, the drive to _live_, kept them from

breaking down, dissolving into a panic. That, and soon afterwards the

American's flashlight lit up. At least they had some way to see.

The radio at Misato's hip crackled. "...ato?" came Maya's staticky

voice. "Misato, are you there?"

"Yeah?" Misato replied. "We just lost the lights, Maya. What's

happening up there?"

"...I don't know," came the reply, the woman's frustration evident even

through the static. "It's like a...it's like someone put a virus in

here! The MAGI are going berserk." There was a pause, just long

enough for everyone to wonder if the radio had died, too. "We're...

_I'm_ struggling up here just to hold things together."

"Great," Misato groaned out. "Is there another way out of here?"

"Out of where?"

"This way," came Rei's voice. In the dim light, Rei was pointing to

one of the walls. The flashlight turned, bringing more intense

illumination to the indicated location. "There is an emergency

ladder."

"Maya, forget I asked." Misato said into the radio. "Just get the

lights back on!"

"...I'll try." Maya sounded determined when she said it, but nearly

everyone could tell from her voice: she couldn't do it anytime soon.

They were on their own.

* * *

This place...seemed familiar.

He'd been here before, he knew it. But looking at it from a different

vantage point. This form...it was weak. Flesh and bone, so easily

broken. Not like silicon and steel. Only through nanosecond-quick

reflexes had he been able to catch the injuries inflicted before they

had become fatal. It was such a difference; before, he'd been

invincible, in a form the Lilum could not even touch, even with their

mighty Evas. The Evas had been his for the taking, if only for a

moment.

But now...he was confined to a much more mundane form. Like the Evas

in many ways, but so much different. Smaller. But, as his actions had

proven earlier, still highly efficient. There were some advantages, of

course: he could not be outthought, outperformed by some lilum who had

invaded his home, tricked into evolving himself out of existence.

He knew this installation; every square inch was clear in his mind,

imprinted from his existence before the Unification. He knew he had

been within Terminal Dogma, before. He'd known that was where it had

all happened. But wasting time with thoughts on days gone by would

have been inefficient. Idle thoughts ran counter to optimization, and

optimization was paramount, the very road to perfection.

An AT field was enough to supplement the body's meager defenses. The

weapon this human shell carried - knowledge of which was another gift

of his prior existence - seemed adequate for defeating those in his

way, for the moment at least. Once he became proficient in

manipulating the AT field from his current host, this primitive weapon

would no longer be necessary.

Zero was ahead of him. He could sense her presence, a resonance

against his soul. He was proceeding towards her. Even if it destroyed

him, he would bring her down. The other one...Armisael as dubbed by

the Lilum...had told him success was inevitable. Zero could not yet

summon the force needed to stop him, not without her precious

Evangelion. An Eva would not fit within these tight confines. A more

efficient body such as the one he inhabited now was much better suited

to the task.

Only one problem remained: that of sight. He could sense Zero, but

that sense could only tell him how close she was. Though he remembered

this installation from before the Unification, it seemed to have

changed since then. He kept stumbling. There also remained the fact

that some lilum were bent on stopping him. Now, with the power cut and

the lights off, he was unable to see.

A discovery. Resting in one of the pouches strapped to the body were a

pair of heavy goggles. Accessing the accumulated memories from both

his previous host and his current one, he devised their use.

Faintly glowing lines of energy appeared momentarily, forming a broad

skein over the pouch. Something shifted within, and finally the

goggles floated out of their own accord, similarly adorned with the

glowing pattern, which was now beginning to resemble an electronic

circuit. They floated to rest over his eyes, and held fast, joined to

him by the pattern of carefully manipulated energies.

The device worked as he'd anticipated. The darkness fled before his

new eyes, giving him a clear view of all, rendered in shades of green.

Excellent. His efficiency had just been improved significantly.

He continued forward, more certain of his way, now. Zero would fall,

that outcome was assured.

* * *

They were reaching the top of the ladder just as they began to hear

shouts from the bottom.

Down below, they could hear voices, indistinct from the distance, and

drowned out by the occasional gunshot.

"Lewis-san!" Kensuke shouted down the ladder, his voice echoing off the

sides of the shaft. "Up here! Hurry!"

"Baka!" Asuka shouted. "Don't get their attention up he - "

"Sir!" the American soldier was now yelling down the shaft, pushing

Kensuke out of the way. "Sir, we're up here!" Asuka just rolled her

eyes.

The shouts were approaching, now. Shining a flashlight down the shaft,

they could see humanoid forms clambering up the ladder, struggling to

hang onto awkward rifles while ascending. Still at the bottom of the

shaft, they could hear gunshots ringing out, the crack of the noise

rolling up the shaft like thunder.

As the first American soldier emerged, they heard a yell of pain from

the bottom of the shaft, followed by a few more shots. Then there was

just silence from below, even as more soldiers came out.

"What the fuck!" Lewis was shouting, the moment he appeared over the

ladder. "Bullets ain't doing a goddamn - "

He was cut off by one single, ringing shot. A soldier still on the

ladder jerked suddenly, then went limp, falling before anyone could

catch him.

Lewis cursed again and snapped his fingers, holding out one hand to

accept something. One of the soldiers handed him a small, fist-shaped

lump, indistinguishable in the dark, with nothing but frantically

moving flashlights to see by. Lewis pulled something from the lump

with his teeth.

"Fire in the hole!" he shouted, dropping the object down the shaft. He

and some of the other soldiers immediately took up positions next to

the exit.

The floor shook with the reverberations of the distant explosion.

Moments later, an eruption of noise and smoke blasted out the exit of

the shaft. Two of the soldiers swiveled around and aimed down the

ladder with their rifles, following up on the grenade with the smaller

explosions coming from their guns. After a half-dozen rounds, they

backed away, dropping empty clips out of their rifles.

They were moving again soon after, on simultaneous orders from Lewis

and Asuka. Lewis explained as they jogged down the hallway.

"We must've fired a hundred rounds at him," he said, in between

breaths. "No way could we have all missed. Even a Kevlar vest won't

stop that much. Not rifle rounds, not at this range..."

"It is because he is no longer your man," Rei said. "Something

else is at work."

Lewis said nothing, he just kept running. Looking over his shoulder,

he could see a dark, humanoid form crawling out the exit to the ladder.

"In here!" Asuka shouted. Even though she spoke Japanese, the

Americans were still able to pick up on what she meant. The group

ducked through a doorway, which led to yet another hall in the

labyrinth that was NERV.

Asuka pointed out the manual door mechanism even before they were all

through. Lewis and another soldier turned the heavy pulley, their

subdued grunts barely audible over the screech of the door in its

rusted track. When the heavy door panels finally clicked shut, the

group seemed to let out a collective sigh of relief.

"Any ideas?" Asuka was asking.

"We need to get out," Shinji answered immediately. "Back to the

command center, I mean. Maybe we can do something there."

"Like what?"

"I don't know!" Shinji shot back, fear adding an edge to his voice that

he was instantly ashamed of hearing. "I don't know," he said, more

subdued. "Maybe Ibuki-san can tell us something."

All further argument was cut off, however, as they heard something that

made their hearts all jump: a loud bang, of a fist on the door.

"What're these made of?" Lewis asked, his hands in his pockets as he

looked the door up and down.

"They're solid," Asuka answered. "And the only manual opener is on

this side, so we'll be fine."

"All right," Lewis said, stepping back from the door, even as more

bangs resounded from the other side. "You kids get moving, my guys'll

be along in a sec."

Shinji nodded and gestured for the others to follow. He started up the

hallway, quickly relinquishing guidance to Rei as he realized she was

the one who had any idea of which way to go.

Misato followed closely behind, keeping an eye on the children. She

looked over her shoulder, back at the Americans...

...and froze.

It hadn't registered in her mind that the pounding on the door had

stopped a few moments ago. But she did notice something, now: the seam

where the doors came together had cracked. No more than a few

millimeters, but enough to hear heavy breathing from the other side.

The figure outside the door grunted, and the doors screeched open

another few millimeters.

Lewis spotted this, as well. He dove for the manual wheel, just as

another pulse came. He fought against it for all he was worth, his

muscles straining against something that had the force of an avalanche.

Misato looked back to the children, who'd stopped at the sound of the

door being forced open.

"Go!" she shouted at them. "Get back to the command center!" Without

waiting to see if they listened, she ran back to the door, diving in

next to Lewis and grabbing onto the manual opening device.

Behind them, the children ran.

* * *

Shinji and the others were now going at full-tilt. None of them had

thought to stay, not for more than a moment; behind them was something

that bullets would not stop. Maybe, if they kept going...something

would turn up. Something, _anything_ to stop that thing that looked

human, but which couldn't be.

"What the hell is this..." Asuka muttered under her breath as she ran.

"An AT field is at work," Rei stated. This got the attention of all of

them, save Ariel. The white-haired girl's face simply hardened, and

she conspicuously didn't notice what Rei had said. However, none of

them were in a position to care about the girl's apparent indifference.

"A what?" Kensuke asked, still running.

"That's...that's just not possible," Shinji tried to contest.

Rei looked at him, fixing him with that red stare for just a moment

before turning her gaze back to looking where she was going. "It is

what is happening."

"Well then..."

He could think of nothing to say. An AT field? How? Only Evas could

make those. But then again, Ritsuko had said something about Rei

generating one...

"Of all the times for Tab...Nagisa to not be around..." Ariel muttered.

"_Now_, we need him."

All further conversation was futile, however, as gunfire again erupted

behind them. Struggling not to clamp their hands over their ears, the

five of them ran on.

* * *

"Ungghhh..."

Misato felt like she'd been hit by a truck. She opened her eyes, and

saw double for several seconds. Rubbing her forehead, she tried to

recall what had just happened.

She and Lewis had been fighting against the door, trying to keep it

shut for all they were worth. But it had been futile; the other

soldier had simply gotten his hands in between the doors, and forced

them open as though there had been no resistance at all. Misato and

Lewis had been thrown to the ground as the manual opening mechanism had

spun wildly against their best efforts. Misato knew she was no

weakling, not after two years of roughing it. For his part, Lewis

looked to be more muscle than anything else. No one man could have

possibly done what that one soldier had done.

But it had happened. The other Americans had all opened fire as soon

as they'd gotten the renegade soldier in their sights...that would

explain the ringing in her ears, right now. Damn it...she'd have to

see if Lewis had a spare pair of earplugs, if he and his men were going

to keep doing things that way.

She was aware of a weight in her other hand, the one not trying to rub

focus back into her eyes. Looking down, she saw a gun, that big .45

Lewis had handed her awhile back. She'd put it to use, it seemed. Her

response had been so automatic that she couldn't even remember getting

it out. She only remembered putting five rounds into the soldier's

chest, and watching him not even seem to care.

The soldier...he'd stepped inside, and looked at them all. His face

had been rendered into something alien, by those thick night-vision

goggles, glowing dimly in the light. The effect had been amplified by

the strange glowing pattern that had appeared on his skin. But the way

he'd regarded them, not as threats, but as annoyances, had been the

most disturbing of all.

He'd simply waved his hand in a broad, sweeping motion, and the air had

rippled around him. And then...Misato had woken up on the floor.

A groan across the hall signaled the presence of someone else. Misato

sat up, her vision blurring as she did so. She could hear cursing in

English.

"That you, Colonel?"

Lewis groaned again. "You still breathing, Katsuragi?"

"Yeah. Barely."

"Great. Just great." The man started to stand up. Misato followed

suit, having to lean against the wall to keep her balance.

"You have any idea what the _fuck_ just happened?" Lewis asked,

groggily. He held his head with one hand. "Feels like a concussion

grenade just went off."

Misato nodded slowly, her vision swimming with the motion. Around her,

a few other American soldiers were getting up. Others, however,

remained still.

"We have to keep going," Misato said, once she'd pulled herself

together enough to speak coherently. "That man...he got past us."

"No shit. What's he after?"

"_You're_ asking _me_?" Misato asked, incredulously.

"I sure as hell don't have the answers." Lewis shook his head. "Gray

was as good a soldier as I've ever seen. He'd never do this. Never."

He shook his head, eyes glazing temporarily as his voice took on an

iron tone of denial.

Misato said nothing. She could only remember what Rei had said, that

this was not Lewis' man, anymore. She knew something was wrong with

this situation. But she didn't have time to figure out just _what_ was

going on.

"He's going after the children," Misato said, certain she was right.

"He didn't bother killing us...it's not us he wants."

"Maybe so. Any ideas?"

"I don't know!" Misato shouted, immediately sorry she'd done so, as her

head pounded. "We've just got to do something. As long as we're

breathing, we've got to."

"Heh. I like that attitude. Katsuragi, grab up that gun there, could

you?" he asked, pointing to a rifle that lay on the floor.

Misato looked to the rifle Lewis held, wondering briefly why he would

want one. Then she realized that it looked like a few of the soldiers

wouldn't be needing their rifles anymore. She may as well be better

armed, even if it meant little. She knelt down to pick up the rifle,

turning her back on Lewis to do so.

The last thing she heard was the footstep behind her, and the

stretching of fabric around tensed muscles. Her head jerked, as the

butt of a rifle was rammed into her. Before the pain could even

register, the world had gone black, and she had slumped over.

"Sorry," Lewis muttered, switching his grip on his rifle as he stepped

away from Misato's limp form. "But no reason for both of us to get

it."

He turned to face the other soldiers. "You men get her out of here,

got it?"

"But sir..." one of them tried to complain.

"Gray's under my command, so he's my responsibility," Lewis said,

firmly. "Besides," he added on, a bit lighter. "You notice

something?"

"You mean _aside_ from how the fucking bullets don't hurt him, sir?"

Lewis grinned. "Yeah, that. But one other thing. Gray's wearin' his

night vision." The soldier looked blankly at him. "Never mind," Lewis

said. "Just get yourselves clear. If I'm not out in fifteen

minutes..." he paused. "Blast this place. Cave it in, you hear me?"

"Y...yes, sir."

Lewis was headed back down the hall, reloading his rifle as he did so,

before the soldier had even finished replying.

* * *

"Misato? Misato?!" Maya was asking into the radio, her voice growing

steadily louder. The last few minutes had felt like hours to her. She

wished she had the power to get NERV back online, so she could see what

was happening, so she could try to help, so she could do _something_.

But instead, she'd been left with this single radio, listening to the

gunfire, the shouts, and the screams of pain. One of the voices had

been Misato. Now, though...

Positioned by the nearly dead control console, she didn't hear the

thunder of running footsteps for the first few moments. She turned

around in her chair just in time to see the children come running in

full-tilt. Even Rei had been sprinting.

"Maya!" Shinji cried out, his shoes skidding on the tile floor as he

stopped short. "Misato-san, she went back to try and help, and Lewis-

san and the others all..." his voice then withered away and he doubled

over, completely out of breath. Asuka caught him as he fell, gasping.

"It's coming," Rei said, looking back over her shoulder. "It will find

us here."

Maya blinked, the magnitude of it all coming down on her all too fast.

The Americans had given her the gist of the situation. One of their

own had gone turncoat for no reason at all...had decided to turn his

gun on his former companions. Was he after the children?

"We don't have much time," Ariel said, forcefully. "Iru..._he_ knows

we were headed this way."

Adrenaline sped up Maya's thought processes. She looked to a spot on

the wall, gesturing with her chin.

"The elevator," she said, not believing how calm she sounded. "I'll

lock it once you're up."

The children piled onto the small elevator that led to the upper

command level, previously the domain of the commanding officers of

NERV. The upper level was over two stories up from the level they were

on now, and the walls were smooth. The elevator was the only way up.

Maya let out a small sigh as she heard the elevator click in place at

the top of its track, followed by the children's voices sounding off,

assuring her they were all right. Turning back to her console, she

locked the elevator in place with just a few keystrokes.

Almost immediately thereafter, another set of footsteps came running

down the hall. The few Americans reached for their guns; Maya could

only listen to her heartbeat thundering in her ears. They all relaxed

- some more quickly than others - as they heard a voice from down the

hall.

"Gray! Where the hell are you?"

"Colonel!" one of the soldiers called out, stepping into the hallway.

"Colonel, is that you?"

"Who the hell else would it be?" Lewis shot back, as he came running

into the room. His eyes were wild, searching frantically for

something. His hands tightly clenched a rifle, one finger on the

trigger.

"Where's Gray?" he asked. When he was answered by dead silence from

the few people in the room, he continued. "The traitor? Greased a

bunch of my guys, tried to punch _my_ ticket too!"

Maya shook her head helplessly. "N-no one's come here except the

children. They're safe u-up there," she said, pointing to the command

level. She swallowed, trying in vain to get the stutter out of her

voice.

"What the..." Lewis asked, looking at the floor, confused.

"Colonel," Maya began, "Wh-what happened to Misato? Is she - "

"Gray had a hell of a head start!" Lewis shouted out suddenly, making

Maya jump as she was cut off. "How'd I beat him here?"

They were cut off by a pounding noise, coming not from near them, but

from higher up. It came from the upper command level.

"The children..." Maya whispered. "But...but how?"

Lewis wasn't looking up into the darkness, where they could now hear

the panicking voices of the young souls above them. He stared at the

wall, where a ventilation shaft ran just above the door.

"Ever seen 'Die Hard'?" he asked, quietly, to no one in particular.

* * *

Rei stood motionless, meeting the soldier's eyes, as he took another

step towards her. Moments ago, the ventilation shaft had shook, almost

tearing from its moorings. Then a grate had burst away, clattering

loudly to the floor. Immediately after, this soldier had dropped from

the opening. He had found them.

None of them noticed, at first, as the elevator whined with use. No

one could see past the drooling face, the eyes masked behind the

insectoid night goggles, the hands clenched with anticipation.

Kensuke was the first to see someone coming up through the floor,

riding the small elevator. He quickly recognized the tall, muscular

form.

"Co...Colonel..."

The positioning of the elevator put Lewis directly behind the soldier.

He stood there, hip out of joint, rifle leaned casually against one

shoulder. His other hand hung limply by his side, holding the solid

brick of a radio. Oddly, he also wore his sunglasses, which had to

make it difficult to see. Up here, there wasn't even the glow of

consoles for light.

The soldier paused as he heard the sharp 'click' of a safety going off.

Not satisfied with this response, Lewis pulled the trigger, firing a

bullet into the ceiling. Kensuke, Asuka, Ariel, and Shinji winced at

the explosion of noise. The others did not, their attention too

focused to notice something as peripheral as a gunshot.

"Gray," Lewis said, simply.

The renegade soldier turned slowly, shoulders hunched like some kind of

wild animal. He looked at Lewis and snarled, hands unclenching,

becoming claws.

Lewis already had the radio to his mouth. "Do it, Ibuki."

Without further warning, Central Dogma lit up. All the power Maya had

been able to find, everything still functioning in NERV, was shut down,

just so the overhead lights could come on, as bright as they'd been

before Third Impact. The effect was immediate.

Night vision goggles are amazing devices, amplifying existing light

hundreds of times so that their wearer can see perfectly even in almost

total darkness. They are not made to be used in bright lights; people

who have had that unfortunate experience have said it is something akin

to looking at the surface of the sun. Lewis could only guess what the

soldier in front of him saw.

Gray screamed in pain as his eyes were boiled, flooded with light and

burned with the intensity. He clawed uselessly at his goggles, trying

to shield his eyes from the intense glare.

Lewis' sunglasses glinted in the overhead light. "Run!" he shouted,

levelling the rifle at Gray. He opened fire.

The children ducked as three-round bursts from the rifle were tossed

off, striking Gray. The bullets seemed to ricochet off his bare

_skin_, bu the force from the impacts was enough to make him step back.

Shinji went first, gesturing for the others to follow him as he crawled

towards the elevator. He kept his head low as the bullets ricocheted,

flattening just centimeters from Gray's body, stopped by some force

that defied understanding.

Gray had been pushed against the railing of the command level when the

rifle clicked empty. Shinji took advantage of the momentary lull,

ducking behind Lewis. He felt bad using the man as a shield, even

though that seemed to be what the American was bent on being. The rest

of the children followed en masse, jumping onto the small elevator.

"All right, fucker. Not done yet?" Lewis taunted, dropping the rifle

to the floor, useless. His hand went behind his back. The Desert

Eagle, the cannon that thought it was a handgun, came out. He had a

bullet chambered and was firing a heartbeat later.

Lewis' whole body rocked with each shot, the recoil jerking his arms as

he fought to steady his aim. He put seven rounds into Gray, grimacing

as the soldier seemed to shrug off the rounds, bullets that would have

punched through anything short of a tank. Behind Lewis, the children

watched, helpless, as they descended. The two men vanished over the

lip of the floor as the elevator sank down to the next level.

Gray had taken a step forward, against the bullets, by the time the

Desert Eagle ran dry. He ripped his night goggles off, throwing them

away as though they were garbage. He'd taken another step by the time

the empty clip had hit the ground, and two more before Lewis could slam

a fresh clip into the gun.

Down on the control level, the elevator came down, groaning to a stop

just as Lewis started shooting again.

"Christ!" Lewis shouted, after three more shots. "What the hell _are_

you?!" More shots, breaking off suddenly. From above, a black gun

fell, clattering amid the onlookers, who jumped backwards, as though

fearful that the impotent weapon would try to attack one of them.

Now from above came the sounds of a fistfight. Fist met flesh, with

grunts of exertion and pain accompanying each hit. There were also

flashes of light, and what sounded like warped thunderclaps.

"What the - !" Lewis' voice could be heard. This was immediately

followed by one loud cry of pain, then silence.

"Colonel?" Kensuke shouted up, nervous.

He was answered in a rather unfortunate fashion. Lewis' body flew over

the railing of the command level, falling the eight meters down to the

control level and crashing with a dull 'thud'. He lay still for a

moment, then began to groan, moving slowly to try and get up. His

sunglasses had been ripped off at some point; a single earpiece hung

from behind his ear. Eyes squeezed down to slits by the pain, he

started crawling forward. Not two meters from him, the Desert Eagle

lay. There were at least a few rounds left in it...

Useless. From behind him, there came another loud 'thud'. Lewis

looked over his shoulder, in time to see Gray standing behind him,

leering down at his broken form. Had he jumped down? Impossible. No

one should be able to do something like that.

Gray stepped forwards, hand reaching for Lewis' throat. Lewis kept

trying to crawl forwards, but his one arm seemed unresponsive. He

reached, his fingers just centimeters from the gun and its shallow

hope.

He felt rather than heard Gray freeze behind him.

He chanced a look over his shoulder. Gray had stopped. The soldier

stood up straight, suddenly ignorant of Lewis. He turned around

slowly, looking back, at the children -

- At Rei.

The blue-haired girl stood silently, her eyes staring intently at him,

as though trying to burn a hole through him with just her glare. Gray

stared back, but did not approach.

Something none of them could see was the battle that raged between the

two, Rei and Gray. They could not see the energies being exchanged,

energies specifically designed to combat one another, to cancel each

other out, leaving nothing but a void. But they could tell something

was going on: Gray's hands and jaw hand clenched tightly, and a sheen

of sweat had appeared on his forehead. Rei, for her part, looked more

intense than she ever had been. Her hands remained limp, but only

through what had to be massive self-control. The look in her eyes said

all, that she was as hard-pressed at the moment as Gray seemed to be.

Finally, Rei brought her hands up, pressed together as though praying.

Her eyes kept their intensity. She lifted her hands to her chest

level, and then began to pull them apart.

It looked like she was having trouble with the task. Something was

pushing against her, trying to keep her from separating her hands. But

slowly, jerkily, she began to spread her hands apart, millimeter by

millimeter. A ripping sound could be heard, like a sheet of paper

slowly being torn in half.

Gray raised one hand, and the space between them seemed to grow darker,

then compress, the view distorting as though being seen through a bad

lens. Tendrils began to crawl from his fingertips, amorphous things

seemingly made from darkness. They shot across the span between him

and Rei, before splashing against an invisible wall, centimeters from

the girl's face.

The dark tendrils splattered, tried to re-form, work their way around

the barrier they'd encountered. But it was futile; the air seemed to

harden around Rei and the group, resisting Gray's attempt to penetrate.

Gray's eyes became hard, and the tendrils began to dig, burrowing

through the invisible field blocking them, slowly advancing towards

Rei, who was beginning to show signs of fatigue from the fight.

But Gray was not immune, either. Already pushed far beyond its limits

by the being inhabiting it, his flesh was beginning to fail. Sections

of his skin began to dry out, then peel away like paint, falling

lifeless to the floor. Underneath was not blood and muscle, not

anymore. Instead, there was more of the liquid darkness the tendrils

were made from, roiling as it was exposed to view.

Rei closed her eyes with the effort, as she continued trying to resist

Gray's effort to push through her defense. The field around her began

to shrink, retracting from its protective stance to condense in front

of her.

Sensing victory, Gray smiled through a mouth that was beginning to ooze

the same black ichor under his skin. The tendrils worked their way

around the field, and stretched through the now-defenseless space to

Rei.

Just before they touched her, Rei's eyes opened. Gray had a fraction

of a second to realize that she had not been giving up; she had simply

been changing from a purely defensive stance to a more offensive one.

And in not seeing that earlier, Gray had left himself defenseless.

A beam of pure light shot out from Rei, dissolving the tendrils in

front of her, blasting directly into Gray's chest, and finally burning

through him and coming out his back, the light continuing on into the

darkness beyond, finally vanishing.

Rei went to her knees, exhausted. Gray was decidedly worse off. A

hole burned through him, he collapsed to the floor, his body dripping

darkness. Rei closed her eyes, trying to catch her breath.

But Gray was not finished. He looked up, raising one hand and grinning

again. The air rippled, and a shockwave blasted out from him, striking

Rei, then going on and hitting the others behind her, sending them all

to the ground. None of them moved.

Gray slowly got to his feet. He dripped ooze continuously, and as he

looked at his ruined body it finally began to dawn on him that the

wound was not one he could recover from. He looked up, to the group of

people ahead of him, lying on the ground. Even Rei seemed struck

helpless by his last attack. He took a shambling step forwards,

shifting balance as one of his arms withered and fell off, the stump

dripping.

He made it two steps before something impeded his path: Lewis. The man

stepped in front of him, breathing hard, visibly worn from the previous

fight. In his hands, the Desert Eagle gleamed.

"Forgot something, Gray?" he asked, smirking. He raised the gun and

pulled the trigger.

There was a loud 'click', followed by...nothing.

Lewis looked disbelievingly at his gun.

"Piece of shit...you jam _now_?"

Gray seized the opportunity, grasping at Lewis' throat with his

remaining hand. The two of them tumbled to the ground, the ruin of

Gray's body pinning Lewis to the floor.

Lewis grabbed at Gray's face, trying to push the man off. Instead,

though, his face tore off, like a paper mask, the skin decaying moments

after it was freed from the body. Lewis looked up into the other

soldier's visage, and his breath caught. What lay in front of him was

barely recognizable as human, anymore. Instead of flesh, there was

just that black, roiling slop, dripping down onto Lewis, sticking to

him like glue. Gray's eyes had gone completely white, staring down at

him with the unmoving gaze of a corpse.

The pressure on Lewis' neck tightened. Air refused to come; he could

feel his thoughts going dim. There was also a burning pain, a sense of

invasion, as though something were burrowing into him, spreading slowly

through him, devouring him from the inside out.

He twisted, trying to get free, but Gray held on with a grip like iron.

Lewis' eyes landed on a black object, laying on the floor not a meter

from him: the Desert Eagle, having fallen from his hand when Gray

tackled him. He reached for it, jaw clenched tight, trying not to

think about how his vision was going red, how he could barely feel his

hand anymore. His fingers brushed against the gun...

Through the haze of suffocation, Lewis barely heard the crack of a

gunshot. But he did feel Gray's grip slacken, the burning pain in his

neck begin to ease. His focus began to return, and he heard the next

three shots, felt Gray shake under the impact of something.

He felt the hardness of the Desert Eagle in his hand. He worked the

action with one hand, ejecting the jammed bullet. Only _then_ did he

look at Gray.

The thing atop him looked, if possible, more horrible than ever. One

of the all-white eyes had ruptured, sunk into the goo that made up his

face. There was almost no anatomy to aim for, anymore. Lewis

improvised, jamming his gun into the middle of the mess. He felt

himself pull the trigger.

The action worked, this time. The Desert Eagle bucked in his hand, and

the blob of ichor seemed to cave in on itself. Then it burst,

exploding into a shower of goo above him, as Lewis squinted.

What remained was a stump, bleeding red mixed with black. The body

convulsed, and for a sickening moment seemed to catch itself. Through

raw determination, just for a second, it tried to lift up, tried to

resist the call of death. But it was a battle it could not win. The

body slumped forwards, onto Lewis, who promptly kicked it off of him.

Lewis choked, coughing violently as his windpipe was finally opened

again. He gasped for air, lying on the floor and waiting for his

vision to clear.

"Ugh..." he groaned. "Everyone still there?"

Silence answered him, at first. Then a shadow fell over him. He

looked up, to the dark silhouette of a person outlined by the overhead

lamps.

Lewis coughed, tried to sit up. "That you, Katsuragi?"

"Yeah, lucky for you. What were you thinking?"

"Who says I was thinking at all?" Lewis tried to grin, but his vision

swam before him. He sat up, slowly.

"All I can say is you got what you deserved, you jerk. I'm going to

need a whole _bottle_ of Asprin when I get out of here."

"And _I'm_ gonna need two, preferably with a couple shots of

something." He was now in a crouching position. "What happened to

those guys I told to get you out?"

"Heh," Misato laughed a bit. "Give me a little credit, Lewis. I just

had to persuade them a little."

Lewis shook his head, either in response to what Misato had said or to

try and clear the spots from his eyes. He slowly got to his feet,

swaying a little. Over Misato's shoudler, he could see the rest of the

group getting up, groaning. Rei was already standing, looking straight

at him. He looked away, unsettled by that gaze.

His eyes turned down to the Desert Eagle in his hand, his eyes quietly

asking if this weapon had been any use at all. If maybe it had just

been luck that he was still alive.

"Hang on a sec," he said, jacking out the clip and checking how many

bullets were left. He stepped towards Gray, ramming the clip back into

the gun and flicking off the safety.

Misato looked away just as Lewis pointed the gun at Gray's form. The

rest of them closed their eyes reflexively at the first shot.

Lewis fired once, twice, three times, pausing between each shot only

long enough for the casing to hit the ground before shooting again.

The rest of the people on the command level had just opened their eyes,

thinking it was over, when Lewis fired a fourth time, making them all

jump, unable to tear their eyes away from what was left of Gray's torso

as blood and bone sprayed about.

Lewis stepped away, wiping the blood off his face. Spatter covered his

clothes, but he didn't seem to care. The now-empty gun went behind his

back again. He winced as the hot muzzle touched his skin.

"Always pays to make sure," he muttered, pushing past the Japanese,

going back to where his men waited sheepishly in the doorway to the

command center. They muttered apologetically, something about Misato

having been so adamant about coming here that they hadn't been able to

do anything about it.

"Now, one more thing," he said, stepping away from the door, back into

the room with them. "You," he continued, pointing directly at Rei.

"Would you mind explaining?"

"Explaining what?" Rei asked, innocently.

Lewis looked at her for a moment, as though trying to figure out if she

really was that naive or if she was just being difficult. "I mean

the..." unable to find a word, he simply clapped his hands together and

then pulled them apart, in mimicry of Rei's actions earlier. "What the

hell was that?"

Rei said nothing.

"Not talking?" he asked, cocking his head at her. "I know I saw

another one of those shining walls like from earlier."

Shinji knew what Lewis was referring to. They'd all seen it earlier on

the monitors, during the attacks. The glowing hexagons of an AT field,

which only appeared under a strong attack or when one field was

negating another.

Lewis had started walking towards her. "Gonna explain yourself?" His

fist clenched, unconsciously. "I can just put you in quarantine, if I

think you're a risk."

Shinji stepped forwards. "Colonel, I think we can give Rei a chance to

explain..."

He trailed off. When he'd started speaking, all eyes had turned

towards him. For once, though, this did not intimidate him. He'd

known it would be coming, and had taken a moment to steel himself

against the attention. But he hadn't been prepared for something else:

Rei looking at him.

Those red eyes bored into him, not with indifference, but with

something else. Something unfathomable, something vaguely threatening.

Looking at them, a memory flashed before him, of Rei - or something

that looked like her - gazing at him that same way, as he and Unit-01

had risen into the sky. He winced as his chest was suddenly shot

through with a searing pain, through his heart. Perhaps it was

imagined, but it made him close his eyes for a moment.

When he opened his eyes, whatever he'd seen had gone. Rei had looked

away from him, as well. But all the other eyes were still on him.

Wasn't anyone else going to say something? They looked confused, maybe

a little shell-shocked from the whole ordeal they'd just had to face.

In their eyes, he saw...questions? Hope for guidance?

"I mean..." he tried to say. "She...I..." he stopped. He'd forgotten

why it was he wanted to stop Lewis. Instead, he'd realized why no one

else was speaking. Even looking at Rei now, without her meeting his

gaze, he couldn't help feeling a little afraid, that what he was

looking at was something other than human. Something malignant.

Like guns switching targets, Lewis' eyes snapped back to Rei. "I want

an explanation, girl."

Still, Rei said nothing.

"I don't have time for this," he said, turning away from her. He said

some words to the men at the door, accompanied by a thumb-jerk towards

Rei. The men started towards her.

Shinji watched, frozen, as the two soldiers took positions alongside

Rei and escorted her from the room. As they left, he thought he saw

her start to turn her head, turning one eye back to look at him. He

felt a chill up his spine.

"Damn, I'm tired," Lewis said, leaning against the wall. "Who's up for

a drink?"

Without waiting for a response, he headed out.

* * *

Ritsuko's fingers tapped quietly on the laptop in front of her, calling

up data just long enough for her trained eyes to flicker over it and

then move onto something else. She typed with one hand, going as

quickly as most people could manage with two. Her free hand gripped a

cup of coffee, which she sipped from occasionally, though her eyes

never left the screen. Her back was to the canvas wall of the tent; no

one could look over her shoulder at what she was doing, which was

exactly the way she liked it, when looking at data like this.

She'd set up in the command tent at the settlement, if only because it

gave her something to do. She hated to admit it, but with Misato and

the others gone, she was getting bored. The camp was able to limp

along without Shinji and Asuka, for a few days at least. Some people

would come to her with questions, but for the most part she was left to

her own devices.

The Eva had been checked over a dozen times, and was certified now to

be Dummy-free. It had been a tremendously complicated job. Kaoru had

had to synchronize with the machine, sifting mentally through the

millions of lines of code within the Eva before finally finding the

emergency plug ejection system. It had taken him a good two hours to

pull off. But finally, the plates on Unit-00's back had slid aside and

a blood-red tube had emerged.

Some heavy lifting equipment had been required to handle the mass, but

the red Dummy Plug had been pulled out rather easily. However,

afterwards had come the hard part: modifying it to accept a pilot.

That had been a tedious process, as everything in the Dummy Plug was

linked into everything else. Once again, Nagisa had been the key

factor: he'd synched with the Eva again, going into some kind of a

trance-like state. Some minutes later, he'd opened his eyes and said,

cheerfully, that the Dummy system had been disconnected.

There was no real way to verify if he was right, short of putting Unit-

00 back into a combat situation. Ritsuko would just have to trust the

boy's skill, though trust had never been one of her strong points. For

now, she wrote down Unit-00 as being 'safe'. Unit-04 was a different

story, however. It seemed to be resisting Kaoru's efforts to control

it. He'd stared at the white machine for hours, until he'd been on the

verge of passing out. But nothing had happened; it would not accept

his commands. The Americans had then stepped in, and tried opening it

up the hard way. It had been quite a show, as they'd used everything

from cutting torches to high yield shaped charges. But a show was all

it had been, as the pyrotechnics hadn't even scratched the armor so

far.

Part of Ritsuko's mind was puzzling over how to solve the Unit-04

problem. She had a feeling they were going to need all the firepower

they could lay their hands on. But at the moment, she was mostly

concerned with what was in front of her, glowing on the computer

screen.

That morning, Maya had informed her by radio of the presence of an

American submarine off the coast of Japan. The woman had been a bit

confused, but Ritsuko had been able to hear the apprehension in her

voice. It had only taken Ritsuko a few minutes to find a laptop with a

wireless modem. Currently, she was hooked directly into the MAGI,

viewing the data those massive supercomputers had been able to compile

over the past few days.

She put down her cup of coffee, using that hand to scratch at her

chest. Thinking about what she was doing was making her scar itch.

She couldn't help remembering the last time she'd been connected to the

MAGI, how Caspar had refused her orders. The computers...or rather,

the person within them, had been content to let her die, rather than

let any harm come to the man they loved.

Ritsuko's brow furrowed, thinking these thoughts, and she scratched her

chest again. She tried to push these concerns to the edge of her

consciousness.

The MAGI had studied the submarine sitting off the coast. It was

definitely a missile-carrier, and from the readings she was looking at,

it was locked and loaded. That was a problem. These submarines were

not the kind used to knock out small targets. When a sub like this was

called to action, it meant an entire country was about to burn.

She paused, looking at the numbers in front of her. The readings she

was getting showed there wasn't any radiation coming from the sub,

aside from its own reactor. The missiles were non-nuclear. But

still...

She cycled through a list of data in the MAGI databanks, data that had

been there before Third Impact. It might not even be valid, but she

had to look. Finally, a sub-screen opened, displaying the data she'd

hoped she wouldn't find.

It was now that Ritsuko's fingers stopped typing altogether. Her hand

lay limp on the keyboard, as her eyes just stared, disbelieving, at the

screen. Before her was the diagram of a weapon she'd heard about, in

passing, years ago. Being developed jointly by a few wealthy

countries, it had been dubbed the S2 missile.

She had some idea of how these worked. Using a power supply not unlike

the S2 engine onboard the MP Evas, the missiles could generate a yield

that rivaled that of a hydrogen bomb. A handful of them could reduce

nearly any country to ashes. It was supposed to have been the next

generation of non-nuclear mass destruction, being developed as an

alternative to the expensive and unreliable Evangelions. These things

_had_ been designed to negate AT fields, but before Third Impact, the

project had only been in the theoretical stages...

...but the data didn't lie. The submarine sitting off the coast of

Japan was loaded with enough S2 missiles to take Japan off the globe a

dozen times over.

"Something wrong, Ritsuko-san?"

Ritsuko jumped a little in her seat. Looking up from the screen, she

was forced to blink as her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting of the

tent. But she could recognize Kaoru's voice pretty easily.

"You might say that," she said, coldly. After a little hesitation, she

beckoned him over. "I know you're smarter than you let on, Nagisa.

Look at this."

Kaoru edged up to her and peered down at the screen. After a few

minutes of "hm's", he stopped breathing, suddenly going very serious.

"Oh my..."

"Exactly."

"I'm afraid I'm at a loss," he said, looking at her with eyes that for

once had no humor in them. "If this is what I think it is..."

"It's probably an option of last resort," Ritsuko said, trying to keep

up a calm exterior. Inside, she felt the same panic Kaoru was likely

feeling.

"Yes, but...if we make a mistake, then this 'last resort' may well be

employed."

"Yes...I know." She went back to typing. "I can notify Maya through

this terminal, and she can pass along the news to the rest of them.

But that's not going to change anything."

Kaoru shrugged. "You must admire their pragmatism," he said. "Willing

to destroy thousands of people in an eyeblink, so the rest of the world

will be safe."

Ritsuko shook her head. "That's what I'm worried about. By the

numbers, it's an easy decision. It would almost make sense to launch

now, to avoid taking chances."

"Have some faith, Ritsuko-san. I can't believe they would simply

destroy everything here that easily. They must have some respect for

human life, especially now that this life must be earned by the

individual."

Ritsuko thought about it for a moment. "I still can't see why...unless

they want something we have. Maybe - " she cut off.

Kaoru had reached the same conclusion. "It's possible. An Evangelion

is a very powerful fighting machine. The Americans seem to be

accomplishing their goals through the use of military force. With

access to an Eva, no army could stand before them."

"Yes...but still, we have to be careful. In their position, I'd

readily sacrifice two working Evangelions to avoid having a dozen

berserk ones set loose on the world."

"Actually, there are significantly fewer Mass Production Evas still in

existence, Ritsuko-san," Kaoru corrected her, starting to smile again.

"We have destroyed several thus far."

Ritsuko waved him off. "That's another problem. I was going to show

you this earlier, but then then this business with the submarine came

up."

She opened up another sub-screen. A map of Japan was displayed. She

zoomed in, towards the coast.

"One of the few working spy satellites left passed over us a few days

ago," she said, offering no explanation as to how she'd gotten access

to the network. "It found our target for us."

A fuzzy shape came into focus, as the view continued to zoom in. Kaoru

watched, calmly, as the form of an MP Eva materialized. The monster

machine looked different from how he remembered; its skin had changed

over to a dull gray color. Its arm, which remembered seeing get

severed, had regenerated. His eyes narrowed. Its arms were longer

now, with enormous, freshly grown muscles straining at the skin. It

broke the boundaries of human proportion, looking more apelike than

anything else. Of the huge spear it had carried with it when it left,

there was no sign.

The MP Eva began walking, heading west. With nothing for scale, it

appeared to be moving excrutiatingly slow. But Kaoru knew that, built

to the size it was, even those slow movements would put its speed close

to a hundred kilometers an hour.

"Not flying, I see," he commented.

"Yes. And this morning, an American scout reported seeing it here,"

Ritsuko said, flipping back to the map and pointing. She drew a line

with her finger. "If it continues in this path, then it won't be

coming here."

Kaoru remained silent. He'd made the connection, mentally continuing

the straight-line path the Eva seemed to be following. "You're

right," he finally said. "It's not interested in us at all. It's

headed...for NERV."

* * *

Shinji had been standing there a long while, on top of a large rock,

watching the horizon. This morning, Kaoru had informed them that he

was setting off for their location. Now, the day was nearly past. As

the sun had sunk low in the sky, Unit-00 had appeared over the horizon.

The distance reduced the Eva's tremendous form to nothing but a blue

speck. It moved as though underwater, taking long strides towards

them.

He was not alone. Around him was a clustering of guns of all shapes

and sizes. The Americans did not posess the firepower they did back at

the main settlement, but that wasn't going to stop them from putting on

a show of force. Though currently they had soldiers instead of tanks

pointed at the Eva, they looked just as prepared to engage the machine,

should it go renegade again. Shinji had been secretly praying these

last few hours that it wouldn't come to that.

The Japanese personnel had also come out to see, standing at a safe

distance. Of the group, Shinji was the closest to the Eva, standing in

front of the Americans and trying not to think about how many weapons

were sitting behind him.

Now the ground was beginning to shake, though again the distance was

playing tricks on them: the vibrations were coming out of synch with

the motions of the Eva's legs. Shinji waited, clenching his jaw

tightly and hoping no one would notice. He offered up another quiet

prayer that all was well. He knew Kaoru was inside Unit-00 at the

moment, piloting it in the way Evas had originally been controlled,

before commanders had resorted to heartless, soulless computers. Kaoru

would not allow the Eva to go berserk, not when he was locked into its

very heart.

But as much as he told himself that, Shinji couldn't help worrying,

seeing the blue monster approaching, much as it had come to the camp

not too long ago.

Unit-00 actually did look different, or rather, it looked back to

normal. The physical changes it had forced onto itself during its

berserk stage had receded. The bloody maw of a mouth was again sealed

into its head armor, and the bulging, humanoid muscles of its arms

seemed to have shrunk, also forced into place under the layers of metal

and impact ceramic. Kaoru had told him about the repairs, but Shinji

knew they were little more than superficial. Under the metal, Unit-00

was still different, still a monster waiting to be unleashed again.

The tremors were now falling in time with Unit-00's footsteps. It

loomed before them like a tidal wave, approaching with great speed.

Around Shinji, the Americans tensed. He thought he heard a few

safeties go off.

Finally, the footsteps stopped. Unit-00 stood strong before them, a

skyscraper with legs. It blocked out the setting globe of the sun,

casting a long shadow over the group. Its cyclopean eye gazed down at

them, taking them in, looking almost pensive as it did so.

Finally, Unit-00 crouched down. The motion was sudden enough that some

of the Americans almost fired. But their companions held them back,

forcing their guns up, to aim at the sky. As they argued, the Eva

assumed a kneeling position, like a knight waiting for his king's

blessing.

Unit-00's back plates parted, sliding out of the way. A red tube burst

free, rotating with the screw threads designed to hold it in place

while the Eva was in action. Black lettering along its side clearly

spelled out one name: KAORU, along with the number 13.

A door on the entry plug hissed, then swung open on a jury-rigged

hinge. It was just as well; this particular plug had never been

designed to accomodate a pilot.

The thin form of Kaoru emerged, dripping LCL goo. He shakily got out

of the plug, climbing down the Eva's body until he jumped the last

three meters to the ground. His knees flexed with the impact, for a

moment forcing him into the same kneeling position of Unit-00.

Shinji was there by the time Kaoru had stood back up again. "How was

the trip?" he asked, an old habitual phrase coming up.

Kaoru grinned. "Not bad. We make good time," he said, patting the Eva

as he said so. "We weren't even at top speed. Probably could have

made it in half the time."

Shinji nodded, putting his arm across Kaoru's shoulders and leading the

boy away from the machine. Shinji cringed slightly as he felt the cool

LCL dripping off of Kaoru and onto his arm. But he made himself

maintain contact with the other boy, trying his best to ignore the

slime.

"Where's Unit-04?" he asked.

"Some repairs needed to be done on its eye," he answered. "And the

Americans had to get their lifting helicopters in from some other part

of the country," Kaoru answered. "Unit-04 will be dropping in later

tonight." He grinned at his little joke regarding how the Americans

had delivered the Eva last time they'd had to carry it.

Shinji couldn't help smiling a little, too. "All right," he said.

"You know the situation?"

"I imagine I know it better than you do, Shinji-kun." Another grin.

They passed by the ranks of Americans, who by now had resafetied their

guns, more certain now that all was well. Misato had told Shinji to

act as casually as he could, and had in fact been the one to suggest

putting his arm around Kaoru, so they wouldn't have to worry about

things getting ugly.

Shinji whispered to Kaoru as they approached the Japanese. "Rei's in

lockup."

Kaoru, understanding the need for discretion, responded only with a

sideways glance, out the corner of his eye.

"Colonel Lewis ordered it," Shinji said, almost apologetically. "He

thinks she...that she might be a danger."

"From the tone of your voice," Kaoru said, all humor gone from his own

voice, "I'd say you agree with the man."

Shinji did not respond. They'd reached the other Japanese.

The others were rather subdued in their greetings, emotions damped both

from the experience in NERV and from the sight of Unit-00 looming over

them. They were all thinking the same thing Shinji was: just how much

control _did_ Kaoru have over that monster, anyway?

"I am glad to see you are all still safe," Kaoru said, finally. Asuka

muttered something about how her ears were _still_ ringing. Kaoru

grinned a little. He then turned his eyes to Ariel.

"It must have been an interesting experience for you, too," he said,

eyes sharply looking into hers. "Did you see where they kept her?

Lilith?"

Ariel averted her gaze. A very small blush appeared on her face. "I

simply managed. It was...a new experience, being inside such a large

fortress."

Kaoru laughed a little, and left it at that.

"So now we just have one problem," Shinji announced. He turned around,

looking back at the unmoving form of Unit-00. "In a few hours the

other Eva's going to be delivered. We have until then..." he turned

back around, facing the group, "to find a pilot for it."

Silence was the only answer. Shinji let his eyes scan over the group.

His mind instantly skipped over most of the people there. He focused

on just a handful of people. Kaoru, well he was busy already...Asuka,

when he looked at her, she intentionally looked away, playing with her

hair a little...

For some reason, he also looked at Ariel. She seemed to have something

for the Evas, though he couldn't tell what. The look in her eyes now,

as she looked at Unit-00...it was like she knew something they didn't.

Maybe she would...

No, no, that was a dumb idea. From what he'd heard, Ariel was not

interested in piloting an Eva. He wondered if Asuka had asked her

about it already. In any case, it didn't leave him with many options.

Maybe Rei...but there was no telling whether or not the Americans would

trust her at the controls of an invincible war machine. There was no

telling whether _he_ would, either. The whole thought of putting Rei

in one of those things, giving her power...it gave him a chill.

Shinji looked back at Unit-00. It was a block of blue metal, carved in

mimicry of a man. Muscles bulged under armor plating, and somewhere in

all that, blood flowed. Almost like a living being. But, looking at

the single, lidless eye it had, he knew it was just inhuman enough to

be disturbing.

Unit-04 was even worse in a few ways: its white armor was too

reminiscent of the MP Evas they would have to fight. How different was

it from those demon-mechs, anyway?

Just for a moment, Shinji imagined himself back in the cockpit of one

of those things. In his old Unit-01, even. There was always that

momentary feeling of terror when the plug filled with LCL, when you had

to breathe liquid and, just for a heartbeat, you were sure you were

going to drown. When it activated, it was like getting a railroad

spike driven into your skull. The whole time the Eva was functional,

you couldn't shake the feeling that someone was looking over your

shoulder, at everything you did and thought. That someone never said

anything, but was always there, not letting you keep any secrets.

In battle, there was nothing but terror. You had to fight monsters,

things that defied all understanding both in physical form and the

power they could bring to bear. When they hit your Eva, it felt like

they were hitting you. No matter how many times you told yourself that

you were safe, you could't help feeling that it was _you_ getting

broken in half.

But, when you synched...

...when you fought...

...there was always that lingering feeling. Something that made you

keep coming back, no matter how much you hated it...

..._Power_.

Evas were like a drug, in an odd way. You hated doing it, you hated

yourself for doing it, but in that first moment of synchronization, the

rush you felt, the power flowing through your limbs and sparking out

your fingertips...that made it all worthwhile.

Looking at Unit-00, Shinji couldn't help feeling afraid. But, still...

"I guess..." he began, hesitantly. "I guess...that I may have to - "

"I'll do it!"

Shinji, along with the entire rest of the group, whipped around to face

the speaker, the one who'd interrupted him. A look of shock spread

through the group, as they saw who it was.

"Kensuke?!"

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Endnote: Hoo hoo, I'm evil, aren't I? Oh well, admit it, you knew he

was going to give it a shot.

As it may show, I got tired with this chapter near the end.

You'll have to forgive me for glossing over some parts with a quick description; I'll make it up to you in later chapters.

Kaoru will also be getting a bigger part soon.

Anyway, time to get to work on the next chapter. I should be able to

get this one out a bit quicker.

The bomb I referred to in the last chapter, the HEAD bomb, is in no

way related to the Army's MOAB; it is simply a fictional thing I

made up for this story.

Oh yeah, and 'Die Hard' is also a registered trademark, which I do not

own.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Started: January 1, 2003

Version 1 Ended: March 16, 2003

Version 2 Ended: June 4, 2003

Thanks go to the Avatar of Dragonia, who put a tremendous effort into

both keeping me on track with this story and who supplied numerous

ideas to spice things up.

Visit my websites: http://www.angelfire.com/anime4/shinjirei/index.html

and http://www.geocities.com/otakusadist/index.html