Angel's End
Written by Hyper Mystic Gohan
Disclaimer: I have absolutely no connection with Gainax, nor do I own...Hey, do I really have to say this?
Gainax security official waves a stun gun in author's direction
Sigh Nor do I own Neon Genesis Evangelion or make any money from it.
While this fic does follow the events of NGE, it is also an original storyline. So please don't mention any glaring plot-holes that I happen to rip open while writing this. I'm mostly using this fic as the prequel for another Evangelion story I've been working on for a while.
Chapter Two - Herald Of The Apocalypse
The lift opened up into the city, and Larry spotted the Angel a couple of blocks away from him. Two other lifts rose up from the ground, flanking the Angel. Shinji's purple Eva and the girl's orange one appeared.
Her Eva immediately left the lift and walked out, its one held up in a defensive posture.
"Larry, Shinji, listen to me carefully. Controlling the Evas are easy, all you have to do is think something and the Eva will do it. Concentrate on walking for the moment."
Larry closed his eyes and thought about walking, strolling out into the city. He opened his eyes and...Nothing.
"Synchronisation levels for Unit R at 5, far below functioning level." Larry heard the woman who Misato had been talking to say. He didn't understand the terminology, but he knew what it meant. He couldn't pilot this thing.
"I was afraid of this," Ritsuko said. "Larry, remain in the lift until we've rebooted the system, then we'll bring you back down."
"Okay, I understand." Larry said with an audible sigh. He looked out and was surprised to see Shinji's Eva take a hesitant step forward, then it was actually walking.
"Synchronisation in Unit 01, 41.3."
"Yeah, go get him Shinji!" Larry yelled from his Eva. "Kick that thing's ass!"
The Angel turned around when Shinji got close, merely turning what Larry assumed to be his head to the side. Suddenly the Angel leaped forward and smashed into Shinji's Eva, knocking it to the floor. It reached down and grabbed the Eva's arm, ripping and twisting at it. That was when Larry heard a dull cracking sound, and the Eva's arm flopped uselessly to the side. But it was nothing compared to Shinji's scream that followed, nearly jolting Larry out of his seat. He couldn't understand why he was screaming, unless...
Unless we feel everything the Evas feel.
Powerless to do anything but observe, Larry was forced to watch the Angel pick Shinji's Eva up by the head and smash a bolt of energy into its head armour, again and again. Finally, it flung it away. Shinji's Eva crashed into a building, and what looked like blood spurted from the head.
"Unit 01 has gone silent."
The Angel suddenly stared right at him, still standing inside the lift. Larry felt his stomach knot, knowing if the thing came for him, he wasn't going to stand a chance. It bolted towards him and he closed his eyes, waiting for the worst. But it never got to him, because something struck the Angel from the side. Larry looked down to see a knife sticking out of the Angel's side, buried up to the hilt. Then he spotted the girl's Eva unit, still standing in a throwing position. Realising that she was the more dangerous enemy, the Angel turned towards her.
"Rei, you have to attack the Angel. Buy us enough time to get Shinji's Eva working again."
"Yes, captain Katsuragi." The girl replied, and her Eva broke into an awkward jog, making Larry realise something. The girl's injuries were affecting her piloting, stopping her from performing at a hundred percent. Even so, she was a lot more adept at piloting than Shinji was, lightly jumping out of the way of the Angel's attack and laying into it with some punches. But they were having little effect on it, and the girl was weakening, her harsh breathing audible through the communications system. And here he was, standing around in a super-advanced fighting machine and he couldn't do anything to help the person who had just saved his life.
Sensing the Eva's weakness, the Angel struck. It grabbed the Eva's head and slammed it into the ground repeatedly, before tossing the Eva onto its back, whereby it pinned it to the ground and began beating it with its fists.
"The bitch got it in the gut. If you don't give me the money and get the hell out of here, you'll get the same, boy."
"Sorry, Larry...There's nothing you can do for me. I j-just want you to know...I love you."
The memories came out of nowhere, the voices connected to an event Larry was still trying to forget. Something in his mind gave way with an almost audible snap. The world dissolved into a red haze and all rational thought was forgotten.
Misato looked at the screen, wondering if the situation could get any worse. Larry was unable to pilot his Eva, Shinji was still down, and Rei was helplessly being beaten by the Angel. The reports weren't good, stating that her armour was probably going to crack any minute now.
"What about the UN forces? Can't they provide us with cover?"
"Negative on that," Shigeru replied, still absorbed at his console. "They're completely exhausted."
"No..."
The single whispered word came from Larry. Everyone on the bridge looked at his Eva, hoping it would move.
"Anything, Maya?"
"Nothing..."
"I won't let this happen again."
"Pilot's heart rate and blood pressure are increasing." Makoto reported.
"Alright, you motherfucking son of a whore!" Larry's sudden yelled words stunned the entire bridge crew. "You want to rumble? Then let's rumble!"
"I don't believe this. Synchronisation detected in prototype Unit R!" Maya suddenly yelled as her monitor began flashing up data. "60 and climbing!"
On the screen, his Eva bolted forwards and headed straight for the Angel. Misato and Ritsuko were both looking on in amazement as Unit R sprouted two black wings from its back.
"He's engaged the propulsion system. Speed rising to three-hundred miles an hour."
"Synchronisation 120 and still going up!"
Abruptly, another of Maya's panels switched on. She watched the numbers and characters fly by, but could believe these even less. "Unit 01 is reactivating itself."
"I don't see how though, we're still not reading any pilot life-signs."
Shinji's Eva lurched to its feet and held out its damaged arm. Out of nowhere, it regenerated the armour, looking as though it had never been damaged in the first place. Then it roared, the sound echoing throughout the entire Central Dogma. It locked its gaze on the Angel and the other Eva rushing towards it, before running in to join in the battle as well.
"My God..." Misato whispered.
"It's the Berserker." Ritsuko said more to herself than anyone else.
The black Eva smashed into the Angel, shoving it off of Rei and sending it through several buildings. Not wasting time, he jumped on top of the Angel and began clawing at its head, ripping and tearing into its flesh. The Angel reared back and heaved Larry off of him, throwing him into Shinji. The two Evas recovered a second before it blasted them with a crucifix-shaped energy attack. But when the dust cleared, both were still standing. The Evas rushed in for another attack, but before they could get close to the Angel, they struck what looked like a wall of orange energy.
"No, an AT Field!" Ritsuko yelled when she saw what had happened. "As long as the Angel has that thing up..."
"They won't be able to scratch it." Misato finished, her heart racing. For a few seconds, it had looked like they might win this thing, but now...
Larry's Eva held up its one hand, and caught a long staff that had ejected from a hatch near its back. Flicking a switch, a long curved blade of blue energy emerged from the tip.
"He's activated the energy scythe. I hope it works as well as it did in the simulations."
Unit R swung the scythe behind its back and swung it in a low arc, catching the Angel's field from the bottom. Sparks flew as the field and energy blade made contact. Straining, Larry pulled harder upwards, until the field suddenly gave way and disappeared in a flash of orange light.
"It ripped through the AT Field like it wasn't even there." For the first time, Misato actually found herself thinking about exactly what these huge robots were.
Its defence gone, the Angel stumbled backwards, but Unit 01 grasped it by its arm and snapped it in two as if in revenge for what happened earlier. It then sharply pulled the Angel forward and quickly stepped out of the way as Unit R impaled it on its scythe, the blue energy blade visible through the back of the Angel. Larry, unaware of how he had gained control of his Eva, yanked the scythe from the Angel's body and shoved it to the ground.
His eyes locked on something, the red orb nestled between a ribcage kind of covering. Something told him that if he destroyed it, the Angel would be gone too. He lifted his foot and stomped down hard on the Angel's midriff, crushing its lower body and making sure it had nowhere to go. With that, he lifted the scythe above his head and brought it down hard. It crashed into the orb, cracking it in one blow.
Without warning, the Angel suddenly acted. It somehow managed to manoeuvre out from under his Eva and leapt up onto it, engulfing the robot's entire upper body with its own. Larry found himself staring straight at the red orb, when it began to glow. Though he realised what was about to happen, he didn't panic. Neither did the Eva make any attempt to move out of the way.
"No! It's going to self-destruct!" Misato yelled a millisecond before the images on the screen disappeared in a brilliant flash of light as the Angel detonated its S2 engine right on top of Unit R. Shinji's Eva was blown clear away as a huge cross of energy filled the sky. The bridge crew watched entire area around the explosion was levelled.
"Larry! Is he...?" Her question was answered when the explosion cleared. From the middle of the destruction the explosion had caused, from the flames came Unit R. Its scythe was held firmly in its right hand, its wings were still extended to their full span and the orange flames didn't even reflect off its black armour, giving it the appearance of a menacing silhouette. One single red eye gleamed threateningly in the dark. "That must be the Eva's true form."
Feeling as if he had just run a marathon, Larry let out a shuddering breath. He tried to remember what had happened in the past few minutes, but all he could recall was a bunch of blurred images and a feeling of hatred.
"Amy..." He whispered softly to the cockpit. His view from the Eva suddenly became dark, and he heard something crashing to the tarmac. Looking in the reflection of the skyscraper next to him, he understood. The explosion from the Angel had completely dislodged his Eva's head armour, and it had just fallen off. There was a hole at the side of its head that looked like an eye socket. Looking closer, he saw something that looked like flesh, and it suddenly began coagulating. Staring in morbid fascination, he watched as a red orb suddenly emerged. It rolled over once, and now there was a black pupil staring back at him. An eye! Though this was supposed to be a robot, he didn't doubt for a second the Eva was watching him even as he watched it in the reflection.
Ritsuko waited to meet Larry as soon as he left the hangar. She looked mildly annoyed and baffled as she handed him a sheet of paper that had both his Synch levels and emotional responses compared on a graph. Seems he had synchronised the moment he had gotten angry. Looking at her expression, he guessed she was puzzled by what had happened and that being puzzled was something she didn't enjoy.
"I don't know what happened out there, but it worked." She told him, trying to keep her voice neutral. "You managed to activate the Evangelion and defeat the Angel, but with extensive damage to both the city and your team. Shinji's being treated for shock, and Rei's been put back into the ICU. We don't know by how long her recovery has been set back." Though it sounded a lot like she was blaming him for what happened, he didn't really care what this woman thought about him.
"Will they be okay?"
"I suspect so. I need to go analyse these results further. Maya is waiting in the next corridor to take you to a dorm room. You'll be staying here until we decide what to do with you."
"Sure, okay. Listen, doctor Akagi, I need to find a phone. My dad doesn't know where I am, I never told him I was going with Shinji."
"I'm afraid that's impossible. Until we decide what to tell the media, there's a communications blackout inside the Geo-Front. No outward communication is allowed." Her eyes narrowed on the boy. "And any contravention of this will be harshly punished. Goodnight, mister Linford."
Ritsuko walked down the corridor, and Larry walked onwards. Hs mind was already made up about the good doctor. She might have nice legs, but she was as cold as a damned computer. Then his mind turned to his dad, probably already half-insane with worry about why his son was so late in getting back from school. He would probably phone the tutor Shinji stayed with, but all the old man would be able to tell his father was that Shinji had gone to Tokyo-3.
In the next corridor, there was a short woman waiting for him. Brown hair, brown eyes, also pretty cute. When she spoke to him, he recognised her as the woman from the command centre.
"Hi, I'm Maya. I have to say, your piloting was impressive. Right before you destroyed the Angel, you were at a 250 synchronisation. Let's go, I've got orders to get you settled in." Larry let himself be led, not really speaking much. They passed a first-aid room, which suddenly made him think of something.
"Umm, Maya?"
"Yes, what is it?"
"I was wondering if we could go see Shinji and that other girl, Rei first. I'm kind of worried about them."
"Sure, I don't see how that could be a problem. Shinji's just on the floor above us in Observation. Rei's four floors up, in ICU."
They jogged up a flight of stairs, and Maya led him to a door. "He's in there, I'll wait outside." When she saw Larry's worried expression, she held his shoulder and gave him a comforting smile. "You can relax. NERV has the finest doctors in the world. Shinji's in good hands."
"Thanks, Maya. I'll be back in a few."
Shinji was lying in a bed, looking like he was asleep. It was plain to see he was still in shock from the battle. Larry could imagine what is must have been like, having a bolt of energy shoved through your head, only to then be flung into a building. But it wasn't just that. His meeting with his father had definitely not been a happy experience. Unfortunately, Larry couldn't sympathise in this case, because as much as Shinji hated his father, Larry loved his own.
He left, and followed Maya up three more flights of stairs to another room. Once again, she waited outside. In here, a lamp on the table in the corner cast a slightly dim light over the rest of the room. The girl was also asleep, her breathing slow and shallow. Larry examined the doctor's report that hung on the edge of her bed. She had suffered neural shock from the battle, as well as re-injuring her broken arm. He checked the name at the top of the chart: Ayanami - Rei.
"Rei Ayanami, huh?" Larry looked from the chart to the girl on the bed, and felt an odd tug of affection for her. It threw him off balance, because he didn't even know a thing about her. He replaced the chart and went over to a pen and pad that was on one of the tables. He sat down and wrote a short note on it and left it by her bedside table.
Rei
I doubt you remember me, you seemed a little out of it when the whole cave-in thing happened in the hangar. Anyway, I'm the guy whose behind you saved today. I don't know when you'll be reading this, but I just wanted to say thanks.
Get well soon
Larry
"All done?" Maya asked him when he left Rei's room, to which he nodded. "Okay, let's get you to your room then." Back down they went, to the corridor they had originally started in. From there, she took him into a door on the left side of the corridor.
"I've got to get going now. Please don't wander around, okay?" Maya asked him as he went inside. The room was as empty as could be. Nothing except a bed and a chest of drawers, on top of which was a lamp. Glancing down at his watch, he saw that it was already one in the morning, but he didn't feel tired. The thought of spending the next few hours in this depressing little room didn't appeal to him all that much, and he left. He decided to head back to the ICU room. He had seen something there that he needed.
The phone was hanging neatly on the wall, right next to the door to Rei's room. He didn't know whether the blackout had actually shut down the phone lines to outside, or was just stopping people from using the phone. Either way, he had to try and use it. He wanted to tell his dad he was fine, as well as just hear a friendly voice in this place where he didn't know anybody.
He picked it up and dialled his home number. It rang twice, before his father frantically answered.
"Hello?"
"Dad, it's me. Listen, I just wanted to tell you I'm fine, so there's no need to be calling in any favours from your buddies in the army and navy."
"Larry? Where the hell are you? Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
"I can guess how worried you were. As to where I am...I can't really tell you that. In fact, there's a certain blonde here who'd have my balls if she knew I was making this call."
"You're not making any sense! Shinji's tutor told me you and him had gone to Tokyo-3, but there's some kind of emergency going on and I can't get any info out of the people down there. Tell me where you are, and I'll have someone pick you up. Actually, scratch that, I'll come get you myself."
Larry smiled to himself. "Dad, I wish I could go home, but I can't. See, I sort of saved the world this afternoon and now a bunch of people are deciding what they're going to do about it."
A beat of silence, then "You're being serious, aren't you?"
"I wish I wasn't, but yes. I've got to get going. Just go get some sleep, since you know I'm not dead or being held for ransom or something."
"I'll do that," His father said, still sounding slightly uneasy. "Just take care of yourself, alright? And phone me again when you can tell me the whole story."
"Will do."
Grinning and feeling a lot better, Larry replaced the phone. His good feeling lasted about a second and a half longer, before he turned around and realised Misato had been standing behind him for who knows how long.
"Umm..."
"Larry, you did know there was a communications blackout, right?"
"Ahh..."
"I mean," Misato said, giving him a warm smile. "Someone did tell you, even though the confusion is so bad, they'll probably have trouble remembering their own names."
Finally, he snapped what Misato was doing. He shook his head, and she smiled. "I thought so. Well, I'm telling you now. If you make any calls, I'll have to lock you up. Understand?"
"Yes, ma'am. Do you know how long until I get to go home?"
"I don't know. Given the commotion that's going on, I'd guess two days at the very least." She saw his face fall instantly. "Why, what's wrong?"
"Two more days of hanging around here? What am I supposed to do, try and make conversation with the ice queen?"
Misato looked at the boy and saw that he really felt out of his depth. He might be handling things a bit better than Shinji, but that didn't mean he enjoyed it. His conversation with his father would have told her how little he wanted to remain here, even if he hadn't.
"Well, how would you like to stay at my place? It's just me and my roommate, but you'll be able to come and go as you want."
"Are you serious?" She nodded, and Larry felt a whole lot better. "Yes, please."
"I'll talk to the commander, but I think it should be okay. I'm going off duty in an hour. Are you going back to your room?"
He shook his head. "I'll hang around here, read one or two of those magazines." Larry indicated the table with his head. "And I'll see you in an hour."
Misato nodded, and turned to leave. "Hey, Misato!" She turned back to him. "Thanks, I appreciate it."
"No problem. You and Shinji saved the day, so it's the least I can do."
When she had left, Larry picked up a magazine and made himself comfortable on one of the chairs in Rei's room. She was still sleeping, and after a while, her slow breathing made his own eyes droop. Now that he had called his father, he found that he really was tired. The magazine he had been reading fluttered to the ground, and he was sleeping soundly.
"Misato, are you sure about this?" Ritsuko was looking at her friend as they climbed the stairs to the ICU.
Misato nodded, and kept climbing. "Shinji doesn't want to live with his father, and I don't think it's good for him to live on his own. Larry's just staying until he can go home."
"But both of them? And why would Larry want to stay at your place when he could just as easily stay here?"
"He doesn't like it here, nor does he think too much of the people," Misato gave Ritsuko a good-humoured smile. "Especially you."
"Me?"
"Yeah, he told me as much. You've got to admit, you didn't go easy on the kid, considering he saved our and the world's collective butt."
"I was just too surprised by what happened today." Ritsuko replied, quieting as they entered the ICU floor. "The Marduk Report doesn't even mention him."
The two of them peeked inside the room and was surprised to see both of the teenagers inside passed out, sleeping. Misato went to go and wake up Larry, but Ritsuko held her back.
"Let him sleep. You take Shinji home, and when he wakes up, I'll bring him over myself."
"You'll do that?"
"Sure. It might give him a chance to see I'm not as evil as he thinks I am. Besides, I have something I want to discuss with him."
"Well, if that's what you want, I'll be happy to leave him. But no funny business," Misato said and waved a cautioning finger at Ritsuko. "Technically, I'm responsible for him until he gets back to his father. So, no hitting on him, okay?"
Ritsuko rolled her eyes as Misato left, and went into the small office on this floor. She still had some work to finish up while she waited for Larry to wake up.