Chapter 3, pt 2: And to fall
Asuka Langly Sohryu leans back in the plug's metallic throne of a chair, blue eyes skittering back and forth over the spindly white crowd that are now encircling her, flexing their wide backs as the feathered wings melt back into sharp shoulder blades.
'So this is what Eva would have looked like if they'd let a bunch of nuts that really were one flight over the cuckoo's nest loose on the design team…'
In all the months she'd been at NERV, Asuka had become more than aware of what most of the mechanics and scores of technical staff thought of the gigantic behemoths they were charged with keeping. She couldn't even begin to count the number of times she'd passed them after a mission or check up on the sync ratios while heading for a desperately needed shower and caught them muttering something under their breath about 'monsters…', 'it's just not right…' or (on the rare occasion when the NERV personnel was feeling particularly articulate) 'Goddamn ugly son of a bitch'.
Well, if any of those opinionated staff members had happened to be in the plug with her right now and able to see those nine featureless, leering faces grinning at them from every angle, they'd probably retract their former stamens there and then. Hell, after one look at these warped parodies, they'd be insisting Unit 02 and the other Evangelions were the most beautiful things to ever grace their vision.
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God, they really are ugly…
The Eva series just stand their, dumbly clutching their wide, double ended spears as Unit 02 and I begin to tense up, ready to go. They do nothing but watch, smiling like lunatics as if the imminent prospect of me tearing them limb from limb is the funniest thing in the world. I'm so looking forward to wiping those brainless smirks off their blank faces…
"Listen up Asuka," The intercom crackles into life as Misato's voice floods the plug. "I want you to destroy the rest of the Eva series. Shinji will be there as soon as he can, so just hang in there…"
Ha, dose that beer guzzling sloth actually think I'm in dire need that stupid kid's help? Was she not watching when I just whipped out half of the U.N's Special Forces… and like I was waiting for an order from head-quarters to get to work on grinding these freaks into the dirt where they belong. If she'd called in a second later, she'd be far too late with that particular command.
"Destroy the rest of the Eva series, huh? Is that any way to talk to someone fresh out of the hospital?" My eyes flit to the HUD display, calculating the ever ticking count down till we run out of power. "Nine units in three and a half minuets, so that's twenty seconds each with time to spare."
I can't stop myself from smirking wildly as I lean forward and sharply push down on the controllers. In the blink of an eye she and I are racing towards the host of mechs and the rest of the world becomes a colorful blur as we hurtle towards them.
This is going to be a piece of cake…
8 8 8
Thunk, thunk, thunk-
Suddenly, there's a gap and the deafening foot fall of Unit 02 can no longer be heard as it leaps up into the air, the accumulated momentum carrying it like a streaking bullet from a gun aimed dead at the group of bone white mechs. Its first victim barely has time to raise its head as the Evangelion sails over it, catching the robot's fleshy skull between its out-stretched hands. In one single movement, Unit 02 pushes down, propelling itself over the white body that crumples beneath it as its skull fractures into a bloody mess with a wet crack between its hands.
The red evangelion lands, hands and feet crushing the very earth beneath it, but is up again, turning on the limp white body it left in its wake and catching it before the suddenly flaccid thing has a chance to hit the ground. With a deep roar that reverberates from its mouthless face, the beast raises the fallen Eva over its head as if the sophisticated piece of machinery were a nothing but a rag doll. The sound of splintering bone and metal fracturing starkly cuts clearly through the air as Unit 02's arms strive to come together and crush the still thrashing mockery of itself between its hands. There is a final scream from the white creature as its body gives under the pressure. Jagged bones tare through its refined skin, tasting the air for the first time while slick organs burst through ruptured flesh with a sick pop. In a great gush, the liberated blood spurts out from the ruined carcass, dousing the Evangelion bellow with a deeper shade of glistening red.
For a moment, the rest of the Eva series remain stock still, staring at this creature that holds their fallen brethren aloft. Nothing moves, save for the occasional crimson drip that falls from the blood-splattered, barely recognisable mass.
Then they come alive.
Unit 02 throws aside its first kill, forgetting all about it as it surges forward. It swings out an arm, catching another of the Eva and throws it back. The white mech stumbles, losing its footing on the grassy soil under-foot and together, the two metallic entities go crashing into the lake behind it. With a muffled thud, the Eva slams into the lake bed, pined down by the great red beast. One of the clawing hands holding it down flies up out of the water and to its long shoulder guard as the progressive knife flips free of its metallic casing. Unit 02 grabs it and brings it down in a vicious arc, planting it firmly into the Eva's upturned face, but that isn't enough. There's a billow of crimson as the blade shatters under the strain, tearing the featureless skull apart as it fractures into countless pieces. There's one final twitch as the white creature's hand arches into a sharp mass of fingers, and then it's gone, the tension leaving it as its punctured brain shuts down.
The Evangelion pushes off its second victim and hurries to the shore with great lumbering strides as it fights against the water. The second the mech's free of the lakes blue grip and foot touches down on firm, restrict-less ground, it's back it its old lethal speed and charging straight towards its next target.
The Eva sees it coming. The lithe creature takes a step back, drawing in its double ended spear but it's far too little, far too late. The Evangelion barrels into it, jagged remains of the progressive knife lancing out and biting clean through its shoulder. The limb falls away as the muscle, sinuses and bone is effortlessly parted by the keen edged weapon, its severed hand letting go of the colossal spear that did so very much to protect it. The great construction of sharp metal flies off, spinning through the air before crashing into a distant, helpless bank of trees that were watching the battle.
The second Evangelion unit pins down the now one armed Eva with a single hand and raises the other, brandishing its blood streaked knife, into the air. However, the strain of its owner's onslaught has finally taken its toll on the small weapon and it gives, disintegrating into a mass of wires and metal right between its owner's fingers.
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"Scheiße…"
Well, so much for that plan, look like I'll have to find an
CRUCKKKK
White engulfs the world around me as the Eva lunges back, slamming its obtuse hand into our face. Damnit, I can't see a single thing like this. All I can do is feel the world shift around me as its arm tenses, forcing us to the ground while its quartet of digits try to worm their way into each of our eyes.
Guess this teaches me for not paying attention.
Our knee slams into the ground, churning up the soil as the freak of science tries to push me down.
Like I'm going to let it do that.
"AAAAARRRRGGGGG!"
My own leg muscles twitch and burn as the great mechanical ones bend to my will and brace against the force, struggling against it as we lurch forward. There's a crack of light between the smothering fingers that try to keep a grip on our head and then they're gone, slipping away as the Eva's arm finally buckles against us.
What a fatal mistake.
In a moment, we're on it, our arms wrapped around its stumpy throat in an iron grip. Together, we bear down on the sad thing, grinding it into the ruptured earth around us. With a single, upward yank, I feel the vertebrate click out of place against my chest and the beast go limp in the crux of my arms.
Three down, six to go.
I take a deep drag of the LCL around me, wincing at the salty tang of my own sweat as it rushes over my tongue and into my lungs. Ok, maybe I was being a little big headed when I said I could handle this on my own… right now I wouldn't say no to a little charity in the form of Unit 01 and its stupid pilot.
Just where the hell is he anyway?
A shadow falls over us and the earth surrounding our combined body. We look up, heads snapping up in unison as something passes across the sun above us, pitch black and void of detail against the dazzling light. All of a sudden it's coming back down as gravity drags it back to earth and I can more than easily make out the shape of the razor sharp staff the silhouette's bearing.
We need to move… right NOW!
The world beyond the plug spins violently as we leap back into a mad roll, the spot where we stood only moments before splitting in two as the air-born Eva lands, spear first. We tumble away, as far as our momentum will carry us before coming to a stop…
…right next to the discarded spear of the last of these freaks who was stupid enough to stay in my way long enough for me to get my hands on it.
"Wundervoll!"
We leap to our feet, dragging ourselves up and out of the tangle of metallic limbs we'd got ourselves into, sweeping up the spear as we rise. The colossal weapon rips free of the ground it's bitten into as together we swing the thing forwards at the oncoming blur of white. The squeal of metal on metal rings out as my blade just catches its and the two weapons spring off each other from the sheer force they were smashed together with.
"ARRGH!"
I feel myself reel back from the blow, our armoured feet sliding over the broken soil while the white mecha before me trips and falls over itself, demolishing a hillside as the pull of the earth overcomes it. Dammit, these things are a hell of a lot harder to use than I though… that one slug alone was enough to nearly send myself sprawling and my arms are already aching, but I don't have the time to think about that. The bastard over there's already clambering to his feet and getting ready to come at me again. We grip the spear ever tighter and throw ourselves towards it, swinging the great, double-ended thing in a lethal arc.
"Damn, they're persistent!" I find myself spitting the words into the intercom as the two colossal spears spark off each other once again. "Of course that idiot Shinji is nowhere to be found!" We flounder back through the air once again, battling against the back lash of the blow as up-routed trees and earth are flung up around us. God, my former self would probably beat me senseless for saying this, but right now I'd probably be willing to get on my hands and knees to that stupid boy if it would get him to make an appearance...
I scream, my already raw throat peeling as it hurls out yet more wrathful noise while we mindlessly rock and take another wide swipe. Again, it block, sending my spear bouncing back over my head as its crunching back into the sea of naked soil.
My mind clicks and we seize the opening, letting our arms come down, dragged by the unbearable weigh of the weapon. The Eva, helplessly wrestling with its own, crumples as the blade slices through its shoulders and comes clear out the other side, hauling a mess of gore and tangled entrails after it. The blood splattered robot lets out a groan as its spine severs before falling face first into a waiting pool of its own red.
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The Eva watches as the geyser of blood spurts up into the air its fellow unit's metal exoskeleton shatters, cracking against the razor edge in Unit 02's crimson stained hands. Its lip curls back and without a second thought it dives at the red Evangelion, dragging the very same weapon behind it. Its feet pound of the ground, churning it up and then stop, letting the momentum of its sprint carry the spear on, swinging it at the rampaging giant.
But it's far too slow.
Unit 02 wheels around. Before the white monstrosity can even register the blur of bloody purple, the serrated edge of the spear has already cut straight through it, the sheer intensity of the swing sending its decapitated torso tumbling free from its ridges legs.
But the Evangelion doesn't stop there. Still twisting, it veers towards yet another hapless Eva. The fifth in the series had just been standing behind it, gripping at its own spear as it tried to measure up the probability of getting hacked down if it madly charged at the crimson behemoth in the same fashion of its former. It's just about to take a step back, but the leg it was in the process of shifting is suddenly gone, torn away by the sharp edged staff.
It falls, and is quickly forgotten as yet another of its identical brood slams into its destroyer. The Evangelion crashes into the ground as the bulk of white barrels into it and the two hit the earth in a mess of writhing appendages. Within the great metal hold of Unit 02 comes a scream as the pilot thrusts out one of its hands. In the outside world, the Evangelion mirrors the exasperated girl's exact movement, grabbing the chest plate of the drooling mass above it. With a grunt, it heaves the creature up into the air, raising the squirming thing over the prominent shoulder guards that sit above its arms. There's a hiss as they crack open, revealing a line of holes that glare maliciously up at the suspended Eva unit, and then-
'KR-CHH'
The smooth white head snaps back as a volley of sharp, stumpy projectiles rip into its skull as the shoulder fires. Inside Unit 02's plug, a manic smile crosses the face of Asuka as she watches ribbons of blood stream up into the air as the white Eva dumbly stumbles back. She leans forward, feeling the great creature around her following her lead and lets loose the second volley of shrapnel waiting patiently in the other shoulder guard.
This time the Eva flies back as the projectiles shatter its skull and send it sprawling. The trees around it merely look on as it gives up its life, its spilt blood splattering against their leaves like fallen rain.
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Makoto lets his lip curl back, swearing as he ducks back down the wall of reinforced metal as a sporadic spray of bullets thunk into it.
'And to think' He silently tells himself with unheard syndicalism. 'On paper you though this sounded like a cushy job.'
"What's going on out there?" He looks over to the lieutenant, still fixed to the monitor of her laptop while what might as well be world war three raged about her and let's slip a small prayer. Right now, he could really do with some good news.
"Asuka has less than a minuet of power left in her reserves. At this rate…" Maya trails off and for the first time lets her stinging eyes leave the figures that click across the computer's screen. "At this rate, she might just do it…"
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0:47:56
No fucking way…. I'm not going to let any of them walk away from this.
I scream, roaring as she and I grab the white creature, slamming it into the fortified wall of steel and concrete. The structure buckles as I ram the Eva through it, its chest giving between our interlocking fingers as they snap together.
"I cannot be defeated! Not with Mama watching over me!" I rip the broken thing from the wall, the structure exploding in a cloud of dust as I hurl the Eva free of its grip and into the blue air. It tumbles down, smashing straight into another of its ilk…the last one of its kind.
I launch myself from the hill and am hurtling towards them the moment our feet touch the ground.
"This is the last one!"
I lead into it with a fist, smashing it unrelentingly into the still standing Eva's face while I draw the other back, balling it into a tight fist before letting loose, burying it deep in the stomach of the other Eva that clings to it. Our hand passes straight through the broken thing, locking onto the core of the final unit. A mist of blood hovers in the air as my fingers grope at it, squeezing with every ounce of strength they have. I feel cracks race out from their five gripping tips.
0:14:10
I can feel it going… goddamn it, just die already!
0:09:43
"GAAAAAAAAAAA-" Some thing cuts my screaming short. Out of the corner of my eye, I see something come flying dead at us. I tare our hand free of its bloody nest, throwing out an A.T field from the tips of our outstretched fingers. The projectile stops dead, a ripple of yellow hexagons lapping out as the spear slams into the invisible force and just hangs in the air.
Wait... this isn't right…
The twin ended structure suddenly twists, its ridged shape melting into something else as it reforms itself. It sheds its heavy bulk, stretching out into a long, narrow shaft, peaked with two points. Oh my god, it… it's…
"The lance of Longinus?"
The A.T field pulsates all the faster, the hexagons spreading out from the point of impact, losing their regular shape as the levitating thing gouges ever deeper into it. There's a soft snap as it finally gives.
No… not possib-
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The blood stained hand of Unit 02 twitches and it tries to step back but there's no time. The lance rockets forwards, embedding its twin prongs in the Evangelion's head and burying themselves up to the hilt as the points emerge from the nape of the red creature's skull. It staggers, slumping over as its legs crumple beneath it but the protruding lance catches it and holds it up off the ground. With a soft squelch, the Evangelion begins to slide down, its punctured head leaving a trail of blood red crimson in its wake.
It comes to a rest, and all is still.
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0:00:00
"AAAAAAAAARRRHHHHHHHHH!"
Pain… oh god, it hurts… it so much… What? I-I- I can't see? Is… is that blood on my hands? My blood? No, it can't be… My eye? What the hell's happened to my eye?
Mama… it hurts… please…please, just make it stop…
I tare my hand away from the burning, gory hole that was my left eye. It feels as though someone just rammed a white hot match into it… and just below the throbbing pain I can sense the warm blood gushing out.
It doesn't stop.
…but neither can we. We can't just sit here… We have to move… finish them off…kill every last one of them.
It hurts!
Screaming, I grab the twin controllers and yank them back. No response. The plug remains dark and She doesn't budge an inch.
NO! Don't you get it Mama? We have to get back up! They… they need us to win… I MUST WIN!
I rock the controllers back and forth but there's nothing except for the sound of my own agonised ranting bouncing off against the confides of the plug's chamber.
Don't do this to me… you said you'd protect me… that you wouldn't let me die…
My eye… why won't it stop bleeding?
Come back mama…please come back…
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Underneath the shelter of a bullet ridden consol, the three bridge workers huddle round a single computer screen, watching the display with dread.
"Internal power supply is depleted… operational limit has been reached." Maya blinks, shutting out the damning figures that flash mockingly out at her from the monitor. "Unit 02 has gone silent."
Aoba raises a hand, fingers gripping the bridge of his nose in an effort to relieve the mounting tension.
'Damnit, she really had a chance too...'
A "What the-?" from Lieutenant Ibuki snaps him from his morbid contemplation and he looks up along with Makoto at the sudden rising electronic squeal that comes wailing from the laptop. Maya leans ever closer to the monitor, silently begging that her eyes are telling her some twisted lie and the reading on the computer's screen are all one great fabrication.
They're not.
"The destroyed Eva series units?"
The two men hang on the empty silence, but the only thing that fills it is a choking noise.
"Oh my god…"
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There's a groan and then something shifts. With a long, rattling sigh the Eva series twitch back into life, dragging themselves to their feet with long, drawn out, lethargic movements. One by one, they rise up and let the mid-day sun illuminate every single one of their faults from rivulets of blood that stain their bleached skin to the occasional shattered skull or dripping organ.
Simultaneously, their lips creak back and they smile at one another, as if sharing some privet joke…Maybe it's about how each and every one of them managed to cheat death so very easily.
Their heads turn together in one great sweep, the manic grins still adorning their faces as they all lock onto the fallen form of Unit 02. The mecha lays motionless asides from the occasional twitch as it slips ever further down the lance's serrated shafts.
The nine bestial sneers widen.
A rustle of feathers floods the air as those great black wings unfurl once again from the Evas backs, melting out from their shoulder plating like hot, morphing wax and together they flex the feathered appendages once, twice and then they're air born, soaring back up into the blue sky like a host of angels. For a moment, they dip and glide in the soft breeze, letting it toy with their wings and carry them over the shattered remains of the now deathly still red Evangelion. The second their shadows cross onto the still thing, they rip free from their almost flight, plummeting towards the pinned robot like a shower of falling stones, landing in a whirl of snapping teeth and row after row of writhing, groping fingers that grab any part of the Evangelion they touch. Unrelentingly, they begin to tear it apart.
8 8 8
"The Eva series has reactivated…" Makoto shifts ever closer, peering over Maya's shoulders to get a better look at the laptop that's suddenly become the focus of all attention as the woman garbles the reading, the surface of his glasses reflecting the monitor's cold orange display.
What he sees is enough to turn his blood to ice. Sure enough, the figures, as impossible as they are, match Ibuki's frantic words.
"Are they going to finish her off?" Aoba asks, a grim, heavy note pulling down at his low voice but before the woman can answer the matrix of information clicks again. Her eyes scan it, picking apart its language of strange characters and numbers.
The colour drops from her face while warm tears congeal at the corner of her eyes.
"What's going on?" Makoto's voice from behind rises but she can't bring herself to look at it anymore, let alone say just what is happening out there and falls back, holding her face in her hands. The man watches her as she breaks down for a moment, quietly asking himself weather he really wants an answer to his hanging question but find his gaze wondering to the laptop's monitor anyway, drawn by morbid curiosity like a moth to the flame.
He reads the text. Suddenly, he can't hear the woman sobbing next to him or feel Aoba jostle impatiently as he tries to join the terrifying adoration of the computer's readings. It… it's just unreal.
"Is that Unit 02?" Makoto asks, fighting against the rising bile in his throat.
No one can bring themselves to answer the question.
There's a final flash of figures that may look like gibberish to the untrained eye, but if you knew how to decode this strange languages, you'd realise that the Evangelion's chest cavity had just been torn loose.
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…
I… my stomach… I feel so...empty.
My fingers crawl to it in an attempt to keep a hold of the sliced innards and organs that feel as though they're being dragged out into the open air. The open gap, that should be their according to the muzzy mess that's my brain as it tries to swim above the raw agony, isn't and the only thing to greet my arched fingers is a warm, slow spreading patch of blood.
Blood… it's everywhere now. It's a bitter tang in the LCL that drifts about my mouth and the red creeping in through my clenched lids, stinging at the eye that hasn't been reduced to tatters but those senses seem so very far away compared to the pain.
"nnnnnngh" The pitiful sound creaks through my clenched teeth as I writhe in my seat, trying to hold on and not let the burning absolve me or swallow me whole.
No… I'm not going to give in that easily. I won't give them that satisfaction.
I can still fight, can't I, Mama? You said you wouldn't let them kill me… that you wouldn't let me die…that you'd protect me.
For always.
You're still here; I can still feel you, even with all the hurt that's trying to drown me… you haven't given up yet either… so that means we can go on… that we can fight…
I raise my head, pulling it free from the tight ball of limbs I've curled up into and peel my eye open. Something new begins to worm its way between my ridged jaw.
"I'll kill you…"
The plug flickers as the lights battle against the darkness.
"I'll kill you…"
I can see the world out side… the blue sky…
"I'll kill you…"
I see them, circling above me in that azure sea.
"I'll kill you…"
My hand leaves the arm of the chair, jerking as I unfold it... If- if I can only reach them then… then I'll tare each and every last one of the bastards apart all over again!
"I'll kill you…"
Yes…I can feel you moving with me… I can feel our hand, how it's stretches out… I can see it groping the air!
"I'll kill you…"
Just a little further, Mama, that's all we need! Then- then we'll have them…
"I'll kill you…"
Then we'll make them pay… WE'LL KILL THEM A
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Asuka's train of though comes to a crashing halt as the suffering bites anew. Suddenly, that out-stretched arm explodes right before her very eyes, splitting straight down the middle as if some invisible razor ran itself straight through the flesh and bone. For a brief second, a look of innocent confusion crosses her face, wiping it clear of the vehement scowl that twisted its features.
And then it's gone as the second child is torn apart.
The child never even saw it coming.