A/N: I know that Touji losing his leg is clichéd, but I needed a way to seriously injure him without killing him. I also tried to expand the Dragons' roles slightly. There's a bit more conversation between them and their masters.
Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion or Scrapped Princess. Those shows are owned by Gainax and BONES respectively. I do not profit from writing this story.
As Shinji closed in on Mana's last known position he could see the Valkyrie. Angry white energy ribbons stretched out from the monstrosity as it hugged Mana's Dragon in a deadly embrace. The dying Dragon writhed and resisted the Valkyrie without success. The way the Dragon moved almost made Shinji think that it was screaming.
"No response from the Valkyrie on any channels. Dragon 5's vital signs are erratic, but she is alive," Rei reported. "I suggest we split. Come in on the right and I'll come in on the left."
Shinji broke formation and arced around the struggle opponents. If the Valkyrie knew he as there it didn't seem to care. It was focused on its current opponent.
"Yui, charge weapons."
Shinji didn't wait for Yui to acknowledge his request. He let loose a loud war cry as he dived in. A laser burst from Shinji finally invited a response from the Valkyrie. A hot white beam lanced out from its 'eye'. Shinji jinxed left at the last second as the shot went wide. He fired a burst again to distract the Valkyrie as Rei intervened.
Rei, having held back, finally saw her chance to strike as Shinji and the Valkyrie engaged in long range combat. She guided her Dragon until she was almost on top of the Valkyrie. A hard swipe from her saber finally forced the Valkyrie to move away from Mana's stricken Dragon. The Valkyrie responded to Rei's threat by bringing to bear its own saber, which she blocked deftly.
Shinji finally maneuvered around and fired off more bursts, which the Valkyrie dodged. 'I know long range combat doesn't work with these guys,' Shinji thought, 'But, if I can keep it distracted, Ayanami can finish it off with her saber.'
Shinji came around for another pass when the Valkyrie's single saber grew to twice its present size. The saber gracefully arced around in a complete circle. Shinji had no time to dodge.
One minute he was on an attack vector, the next he was spinning around. Yui had somehow managed to avoid the brunt of the strike.
"Weapon systems offline. Navigation failing." Yui reported.
Shinji cursed himself. He should have been more careful.
"Yui, how's communications?"
"Functional."
"Ayanami, you there?"
Rei responded, "Yes."
"I'm sorry. My weapon systems are shot."
"Understood. Take Dragon 5 and return to the ship. The fleet should be somewhere behind my current location."
"What about you? Don't tell me…," Shinji trailed off.
"I will remain here."
"NO! That thing will kill you. Run away, Ayanami!" Shinji fought back tears. "I do not believe I will survive."
"I don't have time to argue, Ikari." Rei ended her transmission and continued fighting the Valkyrie.
Shinji allowed himself to shed tears as he grappled on to Mana's Dragon and left the battle scene.
"Dragon flight, if you can read me, please respond," Asuka called out over the radio. All she got was static. "Damn it, Wondergirl where are you!" She asked loudly.
All of this annoyed her. They were supposed to be here. She checked her heading again. "Greta, are you sure this is the right heading?"
"Yes, Asuka. My records show that the Dragon flight should pass this vicinity soon. Might I recommend we fly farther out? We still have some time. Colonel Katsuragi said no more than twenty minutes of search time before we have to leave."
Asuka did as her Dragon suggested and flew out a little further. She continued broadcasting until she finally received a soft response, "Asuka…"
"Shinji! It's you, finally. Where were you?" Asuka frowned as she saw only two Dragons, both of which were damaged, approach sensor range.
"Ayanami, she's… She stayed behind to fight a Valkyrie. I think Mana might be hurt. Take her back to ship, please?"
"What do you mean take her back? If Wondergirl is out there fighting a Valkyrie, then I should be there too. Besides, I can see that your weapon systems are damaged. You couldn't fight even if you wanted to."
As Shinji closed in on Asuka's Dragon he ungrappled Mana and let her float to Asuka. "Please, I'm asking you."
"This is the second time today!" Asuka yelled.
"Second?"
"I took your friend back. He was injured…"
Shinji didn't even wait around to listen to the rest. He turned his Dragon around immediately and sped off into the darkness.
"Shinji, I order you to get back here. I outrank you!" Asuka's diatribe fell on deaf ears as Shinji disappeared from sensor range.
Something was not right and Yui knew it. Her mental link with Shinji was closed. It had never been strong for his benefit since he preferred vocal communication. With her navigation down, she couldn't determine their exact heading. It didn't require a navigation computer to realize where they were going.
"Shinji," Yui said with concern, "We have no weapons. We are defenseless."
"You're wrong, Yui." Shinji retorted. "We have one weapon left."
"I don't understand."
"Yui, are you prepared?" Shinji asked coolly.
That's when she knew his humanity was gone.
Rei struggled against her opponent. She knew as well as any of the other pilots that the Dragon had no chance of fighting the Valkyrie from a distance. Misato had made each of the pilots fight a simulated Valkyrie. Evidently, someone had held back information regarding the extent of the Valkyries' abilities in close range combat. Rei knew she had one weapon left.
"Natalie, prepare the self-destruct sequence."
"Yes, ma'am," the Dragon responded solemnly.
"I will let the Valkyrie grapple on to us. That will be your signal to begin countdown."
"Once the sequence starts, there will be a forty-five second countdown. You can cancel up until the last five seconds."
Rei didn't respond. She charged the Valkyrie, which blocked a swipe from her saber. She pushed back and let her movements go limp. This gave the Valkyrie a chance to grapple on. Rei watched as the countdown began.
She closed her eyes and surrendered herself.
"Sensors detect a Dragon approaching at high speed." Natalie reported.
Rei opened her eyes again. "Ikari…," she spoke.
"AYANAMI!" Shinji screamed her name.
Time moved slowly as the Valkyrie tried to respond to the threat. The two mechas collided with enough force to throw the Valkyrie away and release Rei. The Valkyrie and the Dragon retained their forms for a moment before they both disappeared in a massive fireball.
"Natalie, cancel countdown."
"Canceling…"
'I wanted to be one with Ikari,' Rei thought
Rei's return to the fleet was a quiet affair. She noted that the fleet had shrunk considerably. The Concordia was gone. 'It was as Ikari said,' she thought. 'The Admiral is dead.'
"Rei!" Misato called out excitedly for her. "I glad your back. Where's Shinji?"
"Lieutenant Ikari… died."
Silence passed between the two. "Dock with the Vanguard immediately. We're jumping out of here. I'll debrief you when you're on board."
Touji groaned as he awoke from his anesthetic stupor. As his vision focused, he found himself staring at a clinical white ceiling. That's when he saw her sitting at the side of the bed; hair in disarray and circles under her eyes. Despite her disheveled look, she was still the beautiful Hikari Horaki.
Hikari gasped with relief when she saw Touji wake up. "Touji! I'm so glad… I- I thought we might lose you. The Colonel thought it might be a good idea for me to watch you."
Touji grinned. "Really? You look like you've had it worse than me."
Touji's comment elicited a small, quiet laugh from Hikari.
"Where's Shinji? And, Gloria. I'd like to see her too."
Hikari stopped laughing.
"Oh…," Touji trailed off.
"I- I'm sorry. I wanted to find a better way to break the news…"
"It's all right. I had to find out somehow, right? Besides, I would rather have heard it from you. Now, if you don't mind, I want to get some sleep. I think you can use some sleep too."
Hikari nodded and got up to leave. Touji reached out to touch her. It felt awkward.
"Hikari… When I get out of here, let's go out somewhere – just the two of us. We can talk …"
As Hikari turned to face Touji, she touched his hand. She was crying. "I would like that."
At the heart of NERV lay a dark room from where the Seer, Sylvia Mauser, practiced her private form of augury. She used her magnificent sight to seek out the enemy, find their bases, discern their plans, and guide the human fleet to victory. In this same place she watched the humans battle in real time.
On this day, she watched her captor battle for his life in a distant system. When Ritsuko Akagi killed Gendo Ikari, Sylvia restrained her feelings of joy at seeing her jailer die. True, his treatment of her had been poor, but he had been human; a flawed human, but human.
In fact, Ikari had been more human than the voice that was touching her mind. "Sylvia…"
"I'm here."
"We have done as you asked. We have allowed the fleets in Vega and Arius Eridani retreat. Will you trust us?"
Sylvia kept her conversation secret from her handlers. Most humans reviled at the thought of talking with this strange enemy, but they came with words of kindness. They were the only kind voices she heard in this place. "I believe that I may. Will you guarantee my safety along with that of my siblings?"
Without hesitation they replied, "Yes. We shall strive to keep our word." A pause. "We must go. We will speak again."
Sylvia opened her eyes. "Have I done the right thing, Sister? Brother?" She asked quietly.
A/N: I'm going to get flamed for killing Shinji… :(
