Disclaimer: see part 1

Aoi

Part 6

Rage

By Random1377

((HISS))

"Get her out…get her out!!"

"How bad… dear God!"

"Is she alive?  Don't just stand there, get her out!"

"Ok… on three… one, two, three!"

"Is she even alive? God – her leg's gone… get a tourniquet on it before she bleeds out…"

"No breath sounds… no pulse…"

"Start compressions, get that LCL out of her…"

"One… two… three… come on, honey…"

"Give me the paddles and get that plugsuit off of her…"

((SHRRRIP))

"Plugsuit is clear…"

"Fourteen… Jesus Fucking Christ… fourteen years old… charge to twenty!  CLEAR!"

((THUMP))

"Nothing…"

"DAMNIT! Charge to thirty… come on, honey… come back… CLEAR!!"

((THUMP))

"Still nothing… she's been down for ten minutes… you want to call it or should-"

"NO! Give her epinephrine! Charge to fifty, damnit!"

"Eppy's in…"

"Come ON!!!"

"Charging…"

"CLEAR!!"

((THUMP))

"I've got a pulse!!"

"Thank you… God, thank you…"

**

In Unit 01's entry plug… Touji was seething.

"Where's the Commander!?" he demanded, pounding the control yokes with his fists.  "Where is that bastard!?!?"

He had killed someone.  He had killed Mana – with his own hands.  He had not been terribly fond of the girl, and he would later admit that he had felt the briefest, tiniest hint of guilty satisfaction that the person who had gotten farther with his girlfriend than he had was in pain… he never – NEVER – in his life would he have dreamed of hurting her this badly.

And he would not tolerate being used.

"Fuck it."

"Unit 01 is on the move," Hyouga reported incredulously, his eyes widening as he scanned the data on his screen. "It's tearing free of the umbilical bridge."

"Clever," Gendou muttered softly, "he waited until he was within striking distance before making his move."

"Touji!" Maya begged, "Please… please don't do this!"

"You know I'm right, don't you?" Touji's voice replied, accompanied by the cacophonous sound of rending steel, "you know that fucker des-"

"Increase the LCL pressure in the entry plug to maximum, Lieutenant Ibuki," Gendou cut in smoothly.

There was a horrible silence in the command room.

"Maya?" Touji sounded confused, "What's going on?  Maya?  Come on!  You're with me, right?  After this afternoon… after what we did… come on, Maya!  Don't let this guy just do whatever he wants!  You're with me!  …right?"

Maya's fingers trembled as they hovered over the keys.  If I don't, someone else will, she thought, trying to drown out the continued pleas of the young pilot, but… but he's right, I can't-

"Lieutenant Ibuki…" the Commander's voice was hard and full of warning.  "Now."

If I don't, someone else will… or maybe… maybe they'll hurt him…

"I'm sorry," Maya whispered in a daze, ignoring the stunned looks of the technicians all around her as her fingers slowly tapped the keyboard. "Touji…"

"Damn it!" Touji cried desperately, "Maya, we can-"

"I'm sorry."

Maya's forefinger slowly pressed the Enter key.

Touji cried out in pain as the LCL all around him abruptly bore down, slamming him back into his seat and forcing the air from his lungs.  "Damn… it," he managed, trying to make Unit 01 continue its path of destruction, "May…a…"

"P-pilot is losing consciousness," Aoba said shakily, "he's… he's out, sir."

"Reduce LCL pressure to normal and eject the entry plug, Lieutenant Ibuki," Gendou ordered quietly, "excellent work – you have fulfilled… all of your duties exceedingly well."

Her face a brilliant shade of crimson, Maya entered the codes to decrease the pressure in Unit 01's plug, barely managing to whisper, "Thank you sir."

Don't look at me like that; she thought desperately, trying to keep her attention on the control screen before her as Aoba and Hyouga regarded her with barely concealed disgust.  Please… I… I was just doing what I was ordered to do!  And one of you would have done it if I hadn't, so STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!!

As soon as her task was complete, Maya leaned forward and put her head in her hands, wishing she could be anywhere but there, but knowing she would be court-martialed if she left her post without permission during a Level 1 alert.

Please stop… please…?

Her mental cry went unheard as the bridge crew continued to stare at her with varying degrees of distaste and shock.

The rest of the day would prove to be very long for Maya.

**

With a resonating moan of pain, Mana struggled up from the depths of sleep, shaking from head to toe as the last remnants of her nightmare were finally banished by the harsh, clinical light of an unfamiliar ceiling.  "Wha…?"

Her mind registered several very… wrong details immediately.  First was the fact that her wrists seemed to be strapped firmly to the bed she was lying in, preventing her from doing more than twisting them in futile circles.  Second came the realization that there was someone else in the room with her, just out of sight, and that this someone else was breathing very, very hard – as if he or she had just run a thousand miles before collapsing on the hard linoleum floor. 

The third thing she became aware of, with a slowly growing sense of horror, was that she could not feel her right leg.

Anesthetics, she thought, trying to raise her head far enough to see past the somehow endless expanse of white linen covering her body, probably hurt it, and they had to… use painkillers… or something.

Somehow, this explanation rang as hollow as her hastily written apology to Touji.

"Touji," Mana gasped, struggling again as she remembered just why she was in the hospital, "the angel!"

After several minutes of uselessly tugging at her bonds, she collapsed back onto the bed, panting nearly as hard as her mysterious roommate.  Must have… won, she thought, feeling immensely tired, God, what have I done.  When Hikari finds out what I put in that letter, she'll never want to-

Her thoughts were cut off as the door to the room slid quietly open.

"Miss Kirishima."

Mana's blood ran cold.  "C-Commander Ikari," she whispered, her eyes widening as the man moved into view at the side of her bed, "why am I-"

"Spare me your attempt at innocence," Gendou cut in, waving a hand dismissively, "your cover was gone when your 'uncle' mailed you his first letter.  I would like to give your organization credit for their sophisticated encryption algorithms, but in all honesty, the MAGI had them decoded within five minutes."  He pursed his lips as the girl's eyes widened in fear.  "Don't worry, Miss Kirishima," he said dryly, "I have no plans of killing you."

Mana swallowed – half relieved, half confused – and whispered, "Then what are you going to do with me?"

To her very great discomfort, Gendou uttered a small, dark chuckle.  "Nothing," he said, assessing her calmly through his deeply tinted glasses, "I already have all of your communiqués, and by the end of the day, we will have in our possession anything of value from your organization.  So really, you are of no value to me."

"You're lying," Mana said, wishing her voice was not shaking so badly, "our headquarters is impervious, and so well hidden that-"

She cut herself off as the Commander reached into his pocket and pulled out a small swatch of cloth, holding it up in front of her eyes before dropping it on her chest.

It was her commanding officer's ID badge, looking as if it had been torn roughly from his uniform.

"As for your 'Trident,'" Gendou said quietly, "I'm afraid our engineers found nothing innovative or outstanding in its construction… but the metal will be useful in rebuilding some of the infrastructure in the outlying suburbs."

Mana looked shell-shocked.  "No…"

Gendou pushed his glasses further up on the bridge of his nose.  "So the reason for my visit today," he said coolly, ignoring the girl's dazed expression, "is to let you know that once you are released, you are free to do what you please…" a faint, ironic smile appeared at the corners of his lips, "of course, as a personal recommendation, I would think staying in Tokyo-3 would be your best option, as your house in Okinawa was, unfortunately… not as structurally sound as the construction engineers had hoped."

"AHH!!!" Mana screamed as the underlying meaning of the man's statement hit home, and she redoubled her efforts to free herself as images of her father and younger brother filled her mind.  "I'll fucking kill you!!"

"Your judgment seems to have been affected by your painkillers," Gendou answered, his voice turning to ice as his smile fell away. "Perhaps I will have them discontinued for you… but even if you do – by some miraculous twist of fate – manage to 'fucking kill me,' as you so eloquently put it, remember this: everything that has come to pass is your own doing."  He nodded as Mana stopped thrashing.  "You have sown, Miss Kirishima," he whispered, turning to walk out the door, "now it is time to reap."

"Commander."

Gendou looked back over his shoulder as the girl called out to him.  "Hmm?"

Mana held her chin high, ignoring the tears running freely down her cheeks and blurring her vision as she kept eye contact with the man.  "I swear – no, I promise… that my face will be the last thing you see before you die."

If Gendou was intimidated by her declaration, he made no sign.  He simply offered her a brief nod before stepping out the door, leaving Mana alone with her pain, her failure, and that harsh, ragged breathing, just barely beyond her field of vision.

**

Touji did not look up as the door to his small, one-man cell slid quietly open, filling the darkness with dim, watery light.  Why bother raising his head when it was so fascinating to examine the marks the set of triple handcuffs made while digging into his flesh?  Surely there was nothing more fascinating than that!

"Hey idiot… wake up."

"What do you want," Touji whispered sullenly, keeping his head down, "did you come to gloat or something?  Fucking bitch."

The redhead standing in the door snorted, folding her arms under her breasts and making her way into the cell.  "Heard you tried to spit on the Commander," she whispered, dropping onto the cot at his side and closing her eyes, "and here I thought you were just plain stupid – I never knew you were a complete shithead."

"Yeah, well, ya learn something new every day," Touji grumbled, "now get out… I've got things to do."

"Right," Asuka whispered, leaning her head back on the cell wall and ignoring his demand.  "I also heard that you're still on the pilot roster."

Touji gritted his teeth, resigning himself to the fact that the girl was not leaving anytime soon.  "Yeah, so what?"

There was a long, deep silence before Asuka murmured, "Did he use your sister?  That was the only thing I could think of."

"Don't start, Souryu!" Touji snapped, "I've had a bad fucking day, alright!?"

Asuka nodded, keeping her eyes closed.  "Yeah, about fucking," she said calmly, "I guess you should know that it's all over headquarters – about you and Miss Ibuki, I mean."

"Get OUT!!!" Touji roared, rising to his feet and glaring down at the girl.  "I mean it – get out now, or I'm gonna fu-"

"Kirishima's alive."

Touji bit his tongue.  "She… she is…?"

Asuka nodded again, finally opening her eyes and meeting his gaze.  "So are Misato and Doctor Akagi.  Of course, Misato's in the hospital – same room as Mana, actually – but she's alive."

"How…?" Touji mumbled, unable to comprehend anything surviving the explosion that was described to them.

"I guess she pushed Doctor Akagi behind a blast door or something like that," Asuka shrugged, "she got off with a broken arm from some debris falling on her, and Doctor Akagi came out of it with a few scrapes and cuts… lucky bitch."

Touji looked confused.  "Why is she in the hospital if she just has a broken arm?  Don't they just put a cast on it and send you home?"

Asuka shook her head, a wry smile lighting her face as she explained, "Well, I guess that little knife wound in her chest got infected.  The doctor had her on some pretty heavy antibiotics, but she wasn't taking them like she should, and she was working almost seventeen hours a day, so her body just… went on strike.  I heard that when they found her, she had a temperature of 105.6."

"God damn…"

"Last I heard," Asuka put her arms over her head and stretched, "the doctors were giving her megadoses of Augmenten to try to kill the infection before it eats her lung.  Pretty fucked up, huh?"

Touji nodded dumbly.  "W-what about…" he had to swallow before completing the question, "Mana?"

Asuka rose to her feet, sneaking a glance at her watch before whispering, "Well, she's got some bruises, a few broken fingers, a couple cracked ribs… and her right leg is gone."

"Christ."

Touji sat down hard on the cell's concrete floor, all of the strength leaving his legs as he tried to imagine something as horrible as losing an entire limb.  She… she had it coming, he thought, trying to rationalize what had happened… but finding it nearly impossible.

He averted his gaze as Asuka crouched down in front of him, her hands dangling loosely between her knees.  "I only saw her for a second when I went to check on Misato," she said quietly, "she looked like she'd been crying, and she didn't answer when I tried to talk to her, so I left her alone."

"Y-yeah," Touji managed, no longer feeling the least bit confrontational as he considered just how bad the girl had been harmed.

No one deserves that, he thought, feeling quite ill, hell, even after what she did with Hikari… I wouldn't wish that on anyone.  God, she must have been so scared…

"So," Asuka said, breaking the silence that had fallen, "I was thinking…"

Touji raised his head, looking questioningly into her sky-blue eyes.  "Hmm?"

Asuka considered him for a moment, unconsciously rocking back and forth on her heels.  "I was thinking that our last battle strategy totally sucked ass, right?" she waited for the boy to give a hesitant nod, leaning a bit forward and lowering her voice as she whispered, "So here's what I propose… you and me – we know how to fight, right?  We're out there fighting these things every single time and trusting our lives to idiots who can only fight on paper, so…" she lowered her voice even further, "I say next time, we fight the way we want to."

"What do you mean?" Touji asked uneasily.  "Like we come up with the strategy or what?"

"Yeah, kind of," Asuka nodded, "but more like… if they tell us to do something stupid like retreat or let the army handle it, we ignore that shit and find our own way to win."  Abruptly, she leaned forward, stopping inches from his face and dropping her voice so low he almost could not hear her.  "I'm saying – when we're in EVA – I want you to stop fighting me and fight with me… all the way… without holding back… until all those fuckers are dead.  Are you with me?"

Touji stared into her eyes, wetting his lips nervously as he recognized an unmistakable glint of madness in their azure depths.  "I'm with you," he said finally, half-surprised to hear the words come out of his mouth.  "As long as we're in EVA… I'm with you."

"Good," Asuka nodded firmly, pushing on her knees and shooting to her feet, "because I still think you're a dick."

What Touji thought of Asuka (a most foul name, starting with a C) was lost in the din of the pulsing angel alarm.

**

"Status update!!"

Aoba looked up, opening his mouth to reply, but doing a double-take as he found Doctor Akagi striding onto the command deck, buttoning the top button of her white blouse as she went.

Noticing his look, Ritsuko's expression darkened.  "I was in the crew showers," she snapped, proud that her voice actually stayed level, "Give me a damn status update!"

"Umm, angel is already within fifty miles," Aoba said, trying to regain his composure, and ignoring the nagging voice in his mind that kept trying to point out that that the woman's hair was perfectly dry.  "None of the tracking facilities ever detected it."

"Pilot update," Ritsuko demanded, folding her arms under her breasts. "Maya," she said sharply, "pilot update!"

Maya jumped, shaking her head as if to clear it before leaning over her terminal.  "Asuka and Touji are on their way to the cages," she reported, carefully avoiding eye contact with the other techs, "they've… they were delayed on the way because they had to get Touji's cuffs off.  ETA is three minutes."  Taking a steadying breath she continued, "Rei is… is with Unit 00, ma'am, but she says her ar-"

"Send her."

All eyes flew to the command dais.  "C-commander?" Maya asked uncertainly.

"There is no time to delay," Gendou said smoothly, taking his seat and folding his hands in front of him with a barely perceptible glance at Ritsuko.  "Launch Unit 00 immediately, position it within the Geofront, arm it with a rifle, and have it prepared to defend until Units 02 and 01 arrive."

"Are you sure that's wise, Commander?" Ritsuko asked, coolly arching an eyebrow, "her psychograph since the last angel has been slightly errat-"

"Lieutenant," cut the blonde off, "why haven't you launched Unit 00 yet?"

Ashen-faced, Maya turned her eyes to her terminal.  "Launching, sir."

Ritsuko turned her attention back to the main screen, the barest hint of a smile gracing her features as the display showed Evangelion Unit 00 moving towards one of the launch catapults.  Not the favorite anymore, are you, you little whore?

"Unit 02, prepared for launch."

"Umm… Asuka?" Maya asked, sounding very confused, "how did you get there so fa-"

"What are you, stupid?" Asuka cut in, "I ran all the way here."

"What about Touji?"

There was a long, cold silence.  "Don't worry about your little boyfriend," Asuka muttered darkly, "he's on his way.  Did you think I would wait for him when there's an angel on the way?  You really must be stupid."

Instead of replying, Maya murmured, "Halting Unit 00's launch and preparing Unit 02 for immediate combat."

"No," Gendou said flatly, "you're not."

Maya looked up.  "But… but sir," she protested, "Unit 00's arm-"

"The angel is nearly here, Lieutenant," Ritsuko cut in, unable to hide the triumphant tone in her voice, "follow your orders."

When Maya simply stared, Gendou turned to Hyouga.  "Launch 00, then 02," he said firmly, "all Units are to take the field."

"Yes sir," Hyouga said crisply, shooting Maya a disapproving look from the corner of his eyes as he took over her duties.

As Unit 00 launched, and Unit 02 moved into position… Maya simply hung her head, her entire body shaking as she was cut neatly, entirely, out of the loop.

**

Rei sat placidly in Unit 00's cockpit, waiting for the angel to breach the Geofront and allow her the opportunity to attack.  She turned her head to the right, surveying the battlefield.  Unit 01 had not arrived yet, but Unit 02 stood at her side, near enough to reach the pile of assorted weaponry Doctor Akagi had sent them, but far enough away to avoid being a target of a wide-range explosive – just in case the angel had such a weapon.

I hope you are well, Maj- Misato…

Rei frowned faintly, flexing her left arm unconsciously as she thought of the purple-haired woman.  She had not had the opportunity to visit the hospital wing, as she had been forced to undergo a psychographic update immediately following the angel attack, but she had read reports that the woman was listed as being in 'fair' condition.  Having been in fair condition herself on a number of occasions, Rei did not envy the woman the pain she was no doubt in.

At least she is alive, she thought pragmatically, flexing her hand once more as she pondered the time she had spent with the woman lately.  And we still have not had the chance to have dinner together, so-

"The angel's nearly here," Ritsuko's voice cut into her thoughts, "I want you two coordinating your attacks, understood?"

"Yes ma'am," Rei whispered, shaking her left hand to rid it of the pins-and-needles feeling that was settling into it.

"Yeah sure," Asuka snorted, "but you might as well send her back in… I can handle this piece of sh-"

"Not in the mood for your attitude," Ritsuko said, her voice brittle, "so far this thing has been able to punch through eighteen layers of protective armor in one shot… make one mistake up there, and you're fucked."

"Fucked," Asuka echoed, grinning broadly, "like Miss Ibu-"

"Enough!" Ritsuko snapped, "Concentrate on the fight, god damn it!"

"The angel…"

The com system went silent at Rei's whisper.

"The angel… is here."

**

Rubbing at his wrists, Touji tried to get more comfortable in his pilot's seat.  "What's taking so long?!" he demanded, anxious to vent some of his frustrations on the angel stupid enough to come calling after the 24 hours he'd had.

"Hold your horses," Hyouga replied tensely, "we'll get you there."

"Not fast enough," Touji grumbled, "Hey, is Maya up there?"

There was a moment of silence.  "Yeah," Hyouga answered slowly, his voice heavy with contempt, "she's here."

"Do me a favor?"

"What's that?"

Touji's lip pulled away from his teeth.  "Don't put her on…"

Backstabbing bitch, he thought angrily, gripping the controls of Unit 01 tightly as the huge machine moved towards the catapult, I thought I could trust her.  Man – women really ARE all the same… one goes off and fucks her best friend – but it's no big deal – and the other fucks me because it's her job!  Un-fucking-believable! 

"The angel is coming through!"

Touji braced himself as Unit 01 shuddered to a halt, tensing himself for the upcoming battle and pushing thoughts of his betrayals out of his mind.

"Unit 01," Hyouga called out suddenly, "launch!  Angel has breached the Geofront and is moving into attack position – prepare for IMMEDIATE combat!"

"Just let me at it!"

**

The first thing Asuka thought when the angel's head punched through the Geofront was, Holy shit that thing's ugly.  Closely followed by this thought was, Holy shit I'm gonna fuck that thing UP!!

"Unit 02! Unit 00! Commence saturation!"

"Oh yeah!!"

She willed Unit 02 to pull the triggers on the paired rifles clutched in its huge hands, dimly aware of a third stream of fire arcing in from her left, where Unit 00 was standing just slightly behind her.  Should just turn around, Asuka thought absently, cursing under her breath as her rifles ran dry and she willed Unit 02 to grab another pair, make it look like an accident.  'Oh no!  I slipped!' something like that.  Or I could just let the stupid ANGEL have her… but there's no way I could cover that up.

"Unit 02," Rei's cool voice called, "expand your field… the angel does not seem to be taking any dama-"

"I AM expanding my field, you stupid bitch!!" Asuka shouted, dropping the now-empty rifles and grabbing a pair of rocket launchers from the pile.  "Damn it!  Why won't you FALL!?"

The angel stood in the middle of the Geofront, squat, wide, and looking as if it was not even aware of the firepower the two Evangelions were throwing at it.  Its enormous, vacant eyes turned from Unit 00 to Unit 02, as if trying to decide which posed the most threat, and after a moment of contemplation, two paper-like 'arms' unfolded from the small nubs where its shoulders should have been.

"What's that?" Asuka muttered, leaning forward in her seat as the angel focused its attention on her, but keeping her fingers firmly on the triggers – just in case.

"GET DOWN!!"

"Whuff!"

The LCL left Asuka's lungs in a rush as something heavy smashed into Unit 02's back, dashing her to the ground an instant before the angel's papery arms whipped out, connecting sharply with the fins atop her EVA's shoulders… and slicing neatly through them, sending them spinning through the air in either direction.

"Move," Touji's voice shouted, "move, move, move!  It's going to-"

Asuka cried out as a bolt of pain smashed into her back, leaving her breathless.

"Unit 01 is down," Hyouga called out over the tac-net, "it took the angel's shot directly to the chest.  Pilot is conscious, and system is still online.  Assessing damage.  Touji!  Get up!"

"Unit 02 has lost its umbilical cable," Aoba announced smoothly, "Unit 00… unharmed, but out of ammo.  The angel has sustained no visible damage, and is advancing on Unit 00.  Doctor Akagi…?"

"Pull them back," Ritsuko said through clenched teeth, "Unit 01 by route 105, Unit 02 by route 4, and Unit 00 by route 88 – I need time to figure this out.  Damn it, if we just had time to get the positron rifles ready!!"

"NO!"

All eyes flew to the screen as Unit 02 scrambled to its feet and grabbed another pair of rocket launchers.  "Asuka," Ritsuko gritted her teeth, "Fall back!  You're not hurting it!"

"Fuck you," Asuka snapped, bringing the rocket launchers to bear.  "Touji!  Get up!  When I count to three, give me a full spread on your AT fie-"

"High energy reading coming from the angel!" Aoba shouted, "It's firing again."

Asuka braced herself in Unit 02, but it was no good – the angel's blast caught the red mecha dead on, sending it crashing to its knees as the pilot within tried desperately to focus on keeping her AT field intact.  "T-Touji," Asuka gasped, willing Unit 02 to stand, "c-come at it from the right, and-"

"Again!" Hyouga cried, "the angel's firing again."

"Ahh!"

Asuka could not hold her scream in as the angel's eyes flared… and pain smashed into her chest with the force of a sledgehammer.  "Tou… ji…" she managed, "come… on…"

Through the haze of pain, she could hear disjointed voices coming to her.

"Unit 01 shows damage to left leg actuators – movement down forty percent.  He's having trouble standing-"

"Angel is building power again – I don't know how much more Unit 02 can-"

"Unit 00 is cut off from the weapons – Unit 02 is in the-"

"Oh god – the Angel is-"

Asuka's back arched as the greatest pain she had ever endured washed over her.  "M-make it s-stop!" she begged, her hands shaking as she tried to make Unit 02 move away from the now-constant beam of energy the angel was pouring into it.  "SOMEONE MAKE IT STOP!!"

"Unit 02 is down to three and half minutes of power," a voice announced from somewhere far away, "her AT field is starting to give!  Unit 01 is still down, and Unit 00 has no offensive capabilities.  Doctor, what should-"

"Abnormal AT field reading in Unit 00!!  Contact with the plug is gone!"

Asuka gasped, slumping forward in her seat as the pain was abruptly taken away.  She blinked tears of agony from her eyes and looked around, trying to understand what was happening.  "Wonder… girl…?"  Kneeling at her right side, Unit 00 appeared to Asuka as nothing less than a painstakingly carved statue.  Nothing so much as twitched on the blue machine as it knelt silently next to her, its head bowed as if in prayer and its remaining hand hanging limply at its side.  "What's happening?"

"Pin it down!" she heard Ritsuko's voice calling desperately, "Identify that damn field, and get me in touch with Rei NOW!!"

"MAGI report on the field: inconclusive," came Hyouga's reply, "pattern is… no, I can't even lock that – it keeps fluctuating from blue to orange.  This doesn't make sense!!  The angel's not letting up, ma'am – it's still firing."

"Keep recording!" Ritsuko ordered, "Unit 01 – get the hell up!!"

"I am!" Touji's angry reply echoed over the tac-net, "Just have to… there!"

"Unit 01 is upright," Aoba announced, "progressive knife engaged."

"What do you think you're going to do with that??" Ritsuko asked incredulously.

"Do you have a better idea!?"  Touji shouted.  "Unit 01, engaging!"

Unit 01 staggered forward, gaining momentum as it charged the angel.  Come on, Touji thought, bracing himself as he closed on the giant enemy, come on and die, you fucker!

"Now!!"

With a desperate cry, Touji willed Unit 01 to lunge forward, bringing the progressive knife down straight at the angel's core, but the blade simply shattered as a shutter-like pair of heavy metal doors snapped closed over the core a second before it was hit.  Time stood still as Touji stared in disbelief at the ruined knife, his mouth gaping wide open as his overworked mind tried to make sense of what he was seeing.

"Watch out!!"

Instinct took over, and Touji willed Unit 01 to fall backward, barely avoiding losing his head as the angel's arm whipped out, connecting with Unit 01's wrist.  Pain flared in his mind as his right hand vanished from his senses. "Gahh!!" he gasped, unprepared for the agony that flooded his mind.

"Unit 01 is down again," Aoba called out, "left leg functionality is down another seven perce-"

"Bio-signs from Unit 00 falling!"

Asuka frowned.  Maybe I'm getting my wish, she thought grimly, forcing Unit 02 to its feet and stealing a glance at the time-remaining readout.  How ironic.

"Eject the plug," Ritsuko ordered, "prepare to increase life support to the pil-"

"NO!  Bio-signs FROM Unit 00 are falling – I've got system failure across the board!"

"Rei!" Ritsuko screamed, feeling sweat starting to run all over her body, "what's happening in there?  REI??"

"No good," Aoba shook his head, "I can't reestablish contact.  Unit 00 is in distress, ma'am… MAGI calculate six minutes until total shutdown."

"Asuka!" Ritsuko called desperately, planting her hands on the console in front of her and speaking directly into the microphone. "In six minutes, Unit 00 – SHINJI – is going to die… are you going to let that happen?!"

Stunned silence filled the command room, broken only by the occasional blip or ping from the computer terminals all around.  Half of the bridge crew stared at Ritsuko with open shock, while the other half stared at the small square on the screen marked 'feed from Unit 02,' where Asuka could be seen staring down at her lap, her long red hair obscuring her face as she considered the Project E director's words.

Abruptly, the square vanished from the main screen.

"Unit 02 is moving, Doctor Akagi."

Ritsuko wiped sweat from her brow as Unit 02 lurched forward.  God forgive me, she thought grimly.  I'm making her save the one person in the world she hates more than anything else.  She shook her head wryly.  Maybe I should be saying God SAVE me… because I think I just put myself on Asuka's hit list.

There were several gasps of shock as Unit 02 crouched just inside the protective sphere of Unit 00's AT field… and exploded upward and out, leaping with awkward grace and power and crashing down on the unsuspecting angel, its knees digging into the angel's shoulders and knocking it back half a kilometer.

"Angel has ceased fire," Aoba called out rapidly as the two giants grappled, "Unit 00 is stabilizing, but still in danger.  No contact, no movement, AT field falling to nominal levels.  Unit 01 is unable to stand, maintaining AT field to assist, and Unit 02 is still moving – sync ratio is…falling??"

Ritsuko grimaced.  "Keep monitoring," she whispered flatly, "don't skip anything Lieutenant."

"Y-yes ma'am."

Ritsuko looked up on the screen, where Unit 02 was circling around behind the slow-moving angel.  Yes, let's not skip anything, she thought tiredly, we want to be able to help her any way we can.

**

Asuka was beyond the point of hearing or speaking.  Sounds still reached her, and her lungs and throat still worked just fine… but her cognitive abilities were almost zero, and the only noises coming from her chest were low and guttural – base, animalistic growls, the sounds of a lion closing in for the kill.

Or, more appropriately, a lioness protecting her den.

Enemy, the word flashed through her rage-clouded mind as she easily sidestepped the angel's hasty counterattack.  Enemy… enemy… ENEMY!!

"Oh my GOD!  Look at that!!"

Asuka's lips pulled back from her teeth as she dropped to all fours and charged.  Kill it, she thought, snarling under her breath as she bounded forward, kill the enemy… make it bleed… make it hurt… KILL… IT…

Had she been able to observe Unit 02's actions from outside, Asuka might have been shocked by its feral, low-slung approach.  She might have argued that there was no way she could have been piloting the red mecha as it skittered, spider-like, around behind the angel.  She would have been appalled at the very idea that she was the one that made it pounce on the angel's back… and she definitely would have shaken her head an laughed had someone suggested that she was the one making Unit 02 dig its fingers deeply into the angel's shoulders and ram its head repeatedly into the top of the angel's skull.

Had she been able to observe Unit 02's actions from outside…

But Asuka was inside, and all she knew was that someone (it no longer registered just who anymore) was in danger, and that this thing – this enemy – was the one responsible.

"Asuka!  What are you-"

Asuka ignored the annoying sounds assailing her from the Unit's interior speakers.  Make you hurt, she thought rabidly, willing her jaws to open, make you bleed… hurt you… hurt you… HATE YOU!!

"The angel is firing blind," one of the annoying, gnat-like voices announced, sounding very ill, "and… and Unit 02 is… is… I'm gonna be sick!"

A gruesome smile lit Asuka's face as she felt warm heat rush past her lips.  She spat, ejecting the chunk of tissue from Unit 02's mouth and leaning forward to seize another, oblivious to the thrashing of the enemy clutched tightly in her hands and pinned by her EVA's weight.

Yes – hurt! she thought triumphantly, forcing her fingers to dig deeper, seeking the enemy's heart, Hurt!  You… must… HURT!!

As more and more of the angel's flesh was stripped away by Unit 02's teeth and hands, a spark of horrified consciousness tried to surface in Asuka's mind… but she forced it back down, refusing to feel anything but rage.  Rage was easy.  Rage was simple.  Rage would allow her to fight, to win, to KILL. Rage would not let her down, because rage was a close, close friend – one she had known all of her life.  Rage had always been there, boiling just under the surface, waiting only for her to let herself go and embrace it.

And embrace it she did.

"RAAAAHH!!"

"Angel has gone silent," one of the voices from far away murmured, "it… Unit 02 just tore out its core, Doctor Akagi."

"How… how much time before she runs out of power?" came the shaken response.

"…she's forty seconds past operational limits."

**

"Well," Fututsuki said, his voice shaking as Unit 02 crushed the angel's core between its palms, throwing its head back and uttering a howl of victory, "how does this fit into your scenario?"

Gendou shook his head imperceptibly.  "Scenario?" he muttered coolly, nodding to the main screen as Unit 02 continued to tear at the angel's remains for a moment before finally falling gracelessly to the ground.  "There hasn't been a scenario since it happened."

"You mean-"

"Yes," Gendou cut in, rising to his feet as an eerie silence fell over the command deck, "the prophecies are void.  We're flying blind."

Fuyutsuki paled as his former student made his way from the bridge.  "I see…"

Continued…

Author's notes: wow that was harder to write than I thought.  The fight scene gave me a lot of trouble for some reason – I just couldn't picture how I wanted it to go down!  …then I had the image of Unit 02's fingers digging into the angel, and it all fell into place.  The next chapter will be a little lighter on the bloodshed, I think, but don't worry; I've got a couple events planned that SHOULD match the intensity of this chapter.  Or, you know, at least provide a couple minutes of mild entertainment. ^_^

Pre-read on this chapter was done by Ryoma, who said, 'Whoa!  I don't know why, but somehow… Enraged Asuka makes me kinda hot!!'  Yeah man… me too. -_-

Feedback is welcome on any site with reviewing capabilities or by e-mailing me directly at random1377@yahoo.com