Disclaimer on chapter 6.
A/N: Finally, onto the actual plot!
--
Once again, in a dark room, monoliths marked SEELE 01, 04, 06, 11 and 12 were projected.
01: "We may have to change our plans. Their two best pilots, and two only regular pilots are fighting against us."
04: "No problem. We simply have to distract the Evas as the remainder of the Jet Alones attack their HQ."
06: "Then, from their HQ, we retrieve one of our Evas, and use what remains of it to create more mass production copies."
11: "Then, then the real assault shall begin!"
None paid attention to the silence of 12, they were too caught up with their diabolical meeting.
--
"Revenge is sweet, isn't it?" Kaji smiled at the dead body before him. The conversation taped. "My quest for truth begins again, here in your office... Japanese UN Representative."
Kaji stepped out the office and tossed a grenade in, getting rid of all evidence. "Shinji will like this."
--
Shinji smashed his head against his table, the teasing from his insolent subordinates was getting to him. He understood the tenseness of the situation. Not including his cardboard angel, this is the first time they would be using Evas since Third Impact almost two years ago. This was a way to relieve stress, and he couldn't help but forgive them for this.
Misato was sharing campfire stories, with the Magi substituting the campfire, about Shinji and Asuka. Some humor, some romantic, and some even horror.
"So this one time, Shinji and Asuka..." Misato told the bridge techs, all of them sitting around Caspar. Everybody laughed, even Maya, who had asked them to stop a few times before.
Shinji shook with embarrassment, as Fuyutsuki joined in with baby stories about the boy.
"So once, I saw Yui holding him and he was trying to squeeze with his little hands..." Fuyutsuki told the techs, and they all gasped.
"I knew he was a stud from the beginning!"
"Oh my god!"
"P-Please stop already..."
"Oooh, Asuka would like to hear about THAT!"
The crew on the bridge all laughed at Shinji's expense, as Kaji stepped in.
The air around Misato got to freezing point, and the air around Makoto had dimmed considerably.
"Shinji, we have to talk. Come to the commander's office." With that, Kaji left with a stern, business-like face, not paying attention to the sudden temperature drop and dimmer atmosphere.
Glad for a break from the laughing hyenas, he left with Kaji.
"Kaji, what's so important that you need to talk to me in private?" Shinji asked, since in the new system he hid nothing from the major players. It was more efficient in some ways, but also made himself less respected as a commander.
"The committee, I need to report to them." Kaji told the boy, as they continued making way to the office.
"I... See. Wait, aren't you supposed to be with Asuka?" Shinji realized what he had assigned Kaji to do earlier this morning. The door to the room they were looking for in front of them, Kaji began talking.
"Well, yea, but since Rei is in NERV right now, all the other agents are looking over her." He smiled, as he pushed open the big door to the dark and creepy room.
"You do realize you are not following orders?" Kaji nodded, but the smile told Shinji that he didn't care. Shinji walked to his desk, and sat down. Pushing a button, the voices boomed up.
"Yes, Rokubungi?"
"And Agent Kaji? What do you have to report?"
"It's mostly my report, sir." Kaji's face could be described as cold, hard, and deep in thought. "Please listen to this." He played what he had taped, and Shinji gasped.
"So they aren't here to destroy us, but rather, to develop weapons?"
"And that's not all. The latest SEELE member I assassinated was designated as 12. His true identity was the Japan UN Representative." The tone used was a business-like tone, accepting no nonsense.
"WHAT?" Shinji shouted, bringing his hands down on his desk. "Then Japan is against us?" He calmed down and resumed his regular pose.
"Now we know how they had such control over JSSDF."
"Also, apparently, they still have the technology to create a true S2 core. Their assassination must be at top speed."
Kaji nodded. "That's all I have to say. I will submit a written report later."
"Godspeed, Rokubungi. Tomorrow's battle determines the winner."
The voices faded, and Shinji's face visibly darkened. "So, now we have to stop 9 Jet Alones from entering HQ, into the central dogma, retrieving the remains of the MP Evas, while preventing ourselves from being impaled."
"That would be the case, Shinji." Kaji was serious now, no sign of joking in his voice even after the meeting.
An awkward silence ensued.
--
Caspar sunk deep back down into the ground. Misato, Fuyutsuki and the rest of the bridge crew had laughed until they were tearing up, stomach and eye.
"Wow, that was a good laugh." Makoto wiped a tear from his head.
"Yep, who knew?" Shigeru was rubbing his stomach, enduring much pain.
"I-I don't know..." Maya said, with a clear and crisp giggle that could make seeds sprout. If you could plant seeds in the Geo front.
"I wonder what the commander is doing now." Misato was worried that their commander had taken so long.
"I-I think we went too far." Maya said with a worried tone.
"Asuka does worse to him, so don't worry." Misato joked, but only Shigeru found it funny.
They all stood from the submerged makeshift campfire, and returned to their stations.
"Well, when he comes back, he'll have news for us I'm sure." Misato stated, and everybody began to brood over the seriousness of the situation at hand once again.
--
Shinji stood outside a dojo. He felt awfully stupid wearing what he was wearing right now, holding the strange sword he was holding. Going through the events this morning, he felt his cheeks glowing from the embarrassment.
--
"You know, Shinji, it isn't so bad. Why don't you try and take sword lessons? I'm sure imitating the various Super Robots wouldn't really help." Kaji laughed, finally breaking the silence.
"You can't be serious, Kaji. There is NO way I can be good enough to handle a sword any better than I do now within a week!" Shinji retorted, but his mind was on the ridiculous image of him trying to act like a Super Robot pilot.
"Maybe, it doesn't hurt to give it a try, though." Kaji smiled, and left the room.
"No way..."
--
Shinji clutched his sword tighter, and had read his mantra over and over. "I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away..."
Just then, a large, white haired man, clean shaven and looked in his 60s stood in front of him. "What are you doing chanting such a thing in front of my dojo?" The man asked.
"Um... Sir, I would like to learn how to handle a katana." Shinji replied meekly, and showed him his NERV ID.
"I see. Come in, your lesson begins now. Swing your sword 1000 times! The others are already in their 500s, hurry it up!" The man shouted, as the boy complied. Swinging his sword in weird looking armor alongside others in white cloth made him stand out like a sore thumb. He could feel his whole face flushing from his thoughts, and thanked god he had worn his helmet.
"I can't believe I'm actually doing this."
--
The fateful day came, when the alarm sounded. Shinji had just done 989 swings in his second day at the dojo, and he began to wish the Magoroku wasn't outfitted with so many electronic gadgets. Wading through evacuating citizens, he arrived at NERV HQ just in time to see Asuka lift off already.
"Shinji! Hostile aircraft carriers are headed here! Get up there and assist Asuka right away!" Misato shouted as he had entered the cage panting.
"Yes... Misato..." The boy said trying to catch his breath, as he walked on the catwalk onto the elevator.
--
Asuka hit the top. She needed to get used to this new plug suit. The battle field was just outside Geo front, in the empty city. The shelters had long since been moved down to the Geo front, and everybody had evacuated through the new evacuation plan. Even though this was the second time in two years that the people had gone through a warned evacuation order, they had done it pretty well. All that mattered now was not to destroy the buildings that did not hide in the Geofront.
"Alright, I'll take care of them by myself, since baka-Shinji wants to come late again." The girl announced, as she grabbed her modified positron rifle. She looked up at the first carrier, and fired a shot. The carrier exploded, but the Jet Alone survived.
"Damn it!" She shouted to herself, as she shot another carrier down. The Jet Alone survived yet again.
"Asuka! Don't waste your ammo, the crates the Jet Alones are transported in is extremely durable!" Misato informed her charge.
"NOW you tell me, I already used up 2 shots in the modified Positron rifle damnit!" She shouted, and she aimed at the first Jet Alone that dropped. The shot ripped into the Jet Alone, but even with a hole ripped into half its side, it continued to function.
"W-wait! Isn't it supposed to explode right about now?" Asuka asked, unbelieving.
"Asuka! Destroy the engine and-WHAT? Where's the control rods? Oh well, they won't regenerate, but it seems the circuitry are the latest in wireless technology, letting disconnected wires act as if connected." Misato said over the communication system.
"This isn't fair!" She shouted as she threw the modified positron rifle away and picked up her bazookas. "Die already! I blew you up!" She screamed, as the zombie-like Jet Alone simply kept walking, even though it was half-scorched and it was slightly detached from its arms. The rest of the Jet Alones dropped around her, as the other prematurely dropped JA brandished its spear. Just then, Shinji launched right under Asuka, as his AT Field took the brunt of the blow, being punched from all sides by the 8 mechas as he blocked the lance that pierced through with the sheath of his sword.
"M-MISATO! Are you trying to kill me!" Shinji shouted, as he deflected the lance.
"S-Shinji! I said route 6, not Route 16!" Sighing a sigh of relief, Misato continued. "At least you saved Asuka."
Shinji sighed, and unsheathed his sword. "Let's see how much 1989 swings have done for my sword skills." He grinned his usual sadistic smile that he had grown accustomed to during fights, as a click could be heard indicating the loosening of the sword from its sheath.
Asuka simply continued blasting away at the Jet Alone she had been concentrating on, throwing her bazookas at it once they were out of ammo. Luckily for her, it finally stopped when its circuits literally melted shut from the heat. "Misato, this is insane! 8 more of these monsters?" Asuka was in complete disapproval of this turn of events, but she had to do it. Grabbing one part of the electromagnet field generator, she stabbed it into the ground and activated it, awaiting Shinji to place his in position and activate as well.
"Baka-Shinji! Hurry up!" She shouted to her teammate, but he was busy getting mauled.
"I can't! They're swarming me! Do the other side yourself!" The boy replied, as he slashed off a Jet Alone's arm. His eyes showed boredom, but boredom at what, only Asuka could guess.
"Fine then!" She shouted, as she made a dash for the second pole. However, one Jet Alone tackled her, knocking her to the ground.
"ASUKA!" Shinji shouted, before being clobbered in the head by one of the one-armed Jet Alones. He stumbled forward, and as he turned around, he blocked yet another stab that could have hit the core of his Eva. The 1989 swings had begun to show, both in expertise and weariness.
"Baka-Shinji, worry about yourself!" Asuka said, before taking out her progressive knife and fighting off the football player wannabe.
Suddenly, 3 Jet Alones broke off into 3 directions away from the Evas, heading towards the HQ.
"DAMN IT!" Shinji shouted. "Launch interception!" He commanded, as Misato repeated the order.
A few unmanned, auto-reloading missile launchers rose from the ground, as hundreds upon hundreds of micro-missiles were shot into the Jet Alones. Though all that accomplished was rip their paint and push them back down into the ground.
Shinji felt his sword arm impaled by a lance before he had a chance to recover his concentration. "Damn! Why this arm?" He said to himself, as blood flowed freely out of the hole. Pulling the lance out, the JA jumped high into the sky, as the next JA impaled his other arm. The second did the as the first, as the final one, the only one with two arms left, charged in and impaled Shinji in the stomach, missing his core by inches. The replica lance ripped through his skin as the single pronged head split into two, and formed back into one again.
"Shinji!" Asuka screamed, as she just finished ripping up her opponent. Seeing the brutal onslaught against the boy, she forgot all about the three that were suppressed by the micro-missile barrage.
"As-Asuka... I'm fine..." Shinji whispered with great effort. "Kill the three... heading... To HQ." Shinji coughed, and in his mind he coughed blood.
--
The monoliths laughed in chorus.
01: "Ikari has been defeated!"
04: "Yes... As soon as we destroy Unit-02, we can retrieve without worries our Evas, as well as the prototype copies."
06: "We mustn't get too carried away, however."
11: "Indeed. Finish off Ikari!"
12 remained silent.
01: "12, you haven't spoken. 12?"
04: "... We must confirm his death."
--
Suddenly, the three pinned down, now circuitry exposed, stood up. The missiles have run out, and now NERV has employed Ramiel as a high powered turret. Various junk had been lined up for the angel to consume. It seemed that some Angels, like Ramiel, simply took matter rather than neutrients. This made them easier to feed compared to Angels like Sachiel, and made them excellent trash disposal.
Shinji, however, was on the beating end of the fight, as he tried to dodge the attacks despite his injuries. The lances still grazed his armor sometimes, but thanks to his new plug suit he didn't feel a thing. Still, the wounds already inflicted upon him had taxed him in speed and power, as he can't seem to bring his elbow to move. "Damn it... Damn it... Damn it..." He chanted to himself, as his armor was slowly chipped away. In his mind, his arms were bleeding and so was his stomach.
"Blood... No... Don't think about blood..." He thought to himself, as he shuddered and swung his extended stick of an arm up to smash a JA. "You don't have blood... Forgot about blood..."
"Shinji! What are you mumbling about? Just get the hell out of there!" She shouted, as she was faced with a dilemma to help Shinji or help the HQ and their last defense, Ramiel.
Ramiel had been quite a powerful ally in this operation, as it simply tore through the Jet Alones with a rapid-fire beam that alternated between three targets, making it seem like 3 constant streams flowing out of him. The positron beams melted through the Jet Alones, as it kept on searching for the power source. However, the Jet Alones did not stop, and simply charged through to the HQ, determined to make it to their intended target.
Shinji had not been doing as hot as Ramiel, however. He had just smashed more pieces of an already-ripped JA, and the one with two arms intact had just stabbed the lance again into Unit-01's arm, this time ripping it off by extending into two prongs and reverting back to one.
Shinji's scream echoed, as he suddenly gained the strength to shoulder barge with tremendous force the one who had stabbed him.
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? ASUKA!" Shinji screamed to his red companion. "GET TO HQ! NOW!"
"But-"
"NO BUTS! COMMANDER'S ORDERS!" He had pulled out his best card, and hoped it would be enough. To his delight, it had.
He smiled to himself as he slumped forward, as if to accept his fate. But his mind had other ideas. "Blood... Maybe... Blood is..."
--
"Shinji Ikari. We made a mistake, your father was not murdered by you." The agent informed him, and released him from his cell.
"About time you understood!" Shinji shouted in anger, and made his way back to the Ikari Research Institude.
--
"Yes... Hot blooded..." Shinji's smile grew wider and slightly sinister, as he felt a boiling rage that he could not explain. The blood inside of him seemed to bulge his veins.
--
Making his way back to the Research Institude, Shinji saw a teary eyed Asuka pouncing on him.
"Asuka... Did father really die?" Shinji asked.
"Yes... Yes he did... I'm so sorry Shinji!" She sobbed into his chest, and an Angelsaurus alarm sounded.
--
"Wouldn't that just be like how I wanted to be..."
--
"No! We'll talk later Asuka, lets go!" Shinji shouted, as he climbed into his fighter. Asuka nodded and climbed into hers, and Touji had done the same.
They launched and combined into S2 Shitozan Hentai, and suddenly Shinji's weapons changed.
"WHAT? This is not how I remember it!"
"What's wrong, Shinji?" Asuka asked.
"It has always been this way." Touji added, unenthusiastically.
"But... I didn't have the Shitozan Zanshito! I had the Shitozan Knife!" He shouted. "And I sure as hell prefer double knives over this katana!"
"Suck it up, Shinji! I wonder what weird things happened to you." Misato shouted over the communication system.
"Wait... What? Misato? When did you get here?"
"When your dad died. Now, listen up, we're surrounded by a legion of hell! The Angelsauruses have surrounded us all completely! Arael is attacking us!" Misato briefed the boy.
"Alright! This should be easy enough..."
The three appeared on ground-level, and found themselves surrounded completely from all angles.
"Oh, damn!" Shinji cursed, as he moved himself away from the incoming attacks, saving his skin as well as his friends'.
"Hmm, not bad. Let's see if you can stand up to this!" Arael shouted from the skies, as a beam was shot to the S2 Shitozan.
"AAAH!"
"AARGH!"
"Ouch."
The three pilots were in a cliched shocking cockpit of doom.
"It's invading our minds!"
"Our minds are becoming... One?"
"Ouch."
--
"I won't die here... I want the dream to continue..." Shinji said to himself, as his eyes had glowed an eerie glow. The blood in his veins threatening to escape with a bang.
"AT FIELD! FULL POWER!" He shouted, in Super Robot fashion, rather than in the desperate status report tone he had shouted to Misato in the fight against the tenth. His AT Field once again expanded in a storm, pushing buildings around him into the ground and making their debris fly wildly out of town. This time, however, the sheer power of his AT Field had blocked all three lances from penetrating, even though they were made to penetrate. His blood pumped into where his ripped arm and stab wounds would be, as Unit-01 fully regenerated, even though the wounds had been caused by a replication lance. With both hands usable, he picked up the sheath and sword from the ground.
"MAGOROKU EXTERMINATE SWORD!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, as he smashed the sheath into the most heavily damaged of the trio, shattering the sheath along with crushing what was left of its torso. Swinging the sword vertically up the 2 armed JA, the sword found its way implanted into the replication lance, slicing through cleanly. To destroy an artifact of god, though a replication, was no easy task. Bringing the sword beside him, he followed through his vertical slash with a blurring charge, slicing horizontally, cutting the JA in half. The two halves throbbed and squirmed, but eventually the bottom half stopped working as the top half reached for one of the fallens' lances.
"HIZATSU! MAGOROKU EXTERMINATE SWORD; SHITOZAN!" He shouted, sending shivers of corniness down the bridge crews' backs. The hopeless situation with him about to die had reversed completely.
--
Ritsuko ran onto the bridge. She had locked herself away in study of Ramiel, finding him extremely fascinating. But now he had been launched leaving her nothing to do. Hearing Shinji's hopeless situation, she rushed here as fast as she could. What greeted her was Shinji's Eva breaking the restraints on its jaws as Shinji shouted the final word, as if saying the word with him. Everybody had forgotten about Asuka, who had complied with orders and had disabled one of the three Jet Alones with the help of Ramiel, by destroying its submerged control rods. Two left, and she was already ripping one more apart as the last started attempting to manually override the elevator to bring itself down to the Geo front.
"S-Sempai!" Maya shouted excitedly, seeing the doctor.
"Status?"
"S-Shinji is showing abnormal signs in the Eva." Maya informed the good doctor.
"W-WHAT?" Ritsuko asked in disbelief.
"Sempai, the Synch Ratio dropped to 32.1 percent, but combat data says he is drawing as much power from the Eva as when the Eva went berserk against Sachiel!"
"That's impossible! That has to be wrong, a low synch rate like that can't perform that well!" Ritsuko cried out.
"There are some things you can't explain with science, Dr. Akagi." Misato said behind her, impressed by Shinji's display of what shouting does to one's fighting spirits.
--
Asuka only needed to stop two more, and one is already being ripped apart. However, she would need to work fast before the last one succeeds in dropping down to Geo front, or she might have to fight him in the HQ like Shinji had fought Zuruel.
It was then that she heard Shinji's crazy battle cries. If the situation wasn't so serious, she would have laughed at him. It was ridiculous, but somehow all her worries for him were ripped away as she heard the bridge crew's chattering.
"I'm not losing to baka-Shinji!" She screamed, as she plunged the knife down into the Jet Alone, ripping it in half. The immobilized JA was simply target practice for Ramiel, as Asuka ran to the elevator and smashed into the JA stationed there. As soon as she had been stuck in the crammed elevator, the JA had succeeded in overriding the commands and they were brought down on route 5 into the launch station.
"DAMN IT!" Asuka shouted, as she started to rip through this JA's limbs as well. She stabbed her knife into its right arm as it reached for the lance, and managed to slice it off in time. The arm, still trying to function, flopped on the descending floor. Asuka smiled to herself, as she ripped this JA from limb to limb, and claimed its lance as her trophy.
--
Though Kaji had said he shouldn't expect to use something he saw out of a Super Robot Anime, Shinji had done it. Stabbing his sword down to the half-JA, he began running full speed at the last standing one.
He leaped, and sliced the JA diagonally from the shoulder down to the middle of its stomach, and ripped the blade to face upwards. He lifted the sword up with a jump, and spun in midair with the blade still extended, cutting off the JA's red bud of a head in a whirling dance of a sword.
The JA tried to stab Shinji with the lance at least killing him before it had gone completely inactive.
Shinji had landed, twirled to face the JA with his sword pulled back and one hand pointing straight into his opponent's chest. He lunged forward for the finishing strike. The blind JA lifted its deadly weapon up, and through some luck, split Shinji's arm cleanly in two, much like in Asuka's fight against the 9 Evas.
"I have blood... Do you?" Shinji smiled. "Of course not. No blood... No blood at all..." Shinji smiled sadistically.
To be continued... Maybe?
A/N: The first jump into the real plot of the story! The assassination of SEELE, the drama of the insane Shinji, the hot blooded scenes!
And the end! The end! 13 more chapters to go!
Here's an omake! A cookie to all who gets the reference.
--
"I won't die here... I want the dream to continue..." Shinji said to himself, as his eyes had glowed an eerie glow. The blood in his veins threatening to escape with a bang. "I will... I will live... To dream about Asuka in lingeries!"
Fueled by intense desire, Shinji showed the true force of his Magoroku Exterminate Sword.
"CHOUHIZATSU! MAGOROKU EXTERMINATE SWORD; ERECT!" He lifted the sword up, and the sword shifted and grew in size. "ZANSHITOTOU!"