Reign of the Tabri
"If the Final Messenger is defeated by the neglected son it shall come
to pass that the children rule all."- Dead Sea Scrolls, Chapter 17
Did you miss me?
Disclaimer: Consider everything from here on disclaimed.
Chapter 7: Rambling Destruction
Zacherial crouched on top of one of the many skyscrapers of Tokyo-3. He was charged to find one boy in thousands of people. He'd been looking for days and so far had been unable too. He had managed to cover seventy percent of the city though. Zacherial knew it was only a matter of time until he found Touji.
In many ways he feared having to kill the boy. The fourth child might not have done as much as the others but he had still been willing too. Zacherial really didn't want to kill such a magnificent Lilim.
Zacherial gazed down on the city. He had come up here to try to gather his thoughts. The only un-searched part of the city was the hardest. Touji only would've hid there if he knew Zacherial was looking for him. Or if he was more scared then Zacherial thought. 'Still,' thought Zacherial, 'I have got to give him credit. He was a child and therefore could probable figure out we would want to find him.'
Zacherial sighed and jumped headfirst from the building. He whizzed down looking into the unoccupied building. Michel had yet to allow the civilians to enter the superstructures; he had also refused to lower them.
Over the past few days Zacherial had seen helicopters coming and going. While he had been blocked out of the loop he could still figure out what they were for. Michel had apparently gotten the UN to send food for the citizens of Tokyo-3.
Zacherial could also figure out other things. First off, Michel would soon find the people of Tokyo-3 something to do. While he hadn't invented it Michel was a fan of slave labor. It was one of the few ideas the Lilim had made that Michel liked. It was also something that Zacherial detested. The second thing Zacherial deduced was that the UN would attack Tokyo-3 and try to liberate it soon. How soon he couldn't tell.
He fell upside down facing into reflective windows. His only warning, and only reason he survived, was from the windows. He saw the cruise missile in the reflection and was able to raise his AT-field. Still, the explosion from the multi-ton warhead sent him through the building and out the other side.
Apparently the UN was here now.
"The attack has commenced." was all Major General Okom said. If SEELE had any thoughts on the matter they didn't tell him. He stood in the center of their circle, in the same place Gendo Ikari had once stood. Even if he stood in the same place he would never replace Gendo. Ikom knew he couldn't hope to replace the master of deceit.
While SEELE had been enemies with him near the end they still respected him. As an enemy if nothing else.
If the Tabri were a little slow on the draw then the UN was slower. Immediately after the first cruise missile the buildings began to lower and the civilians were ordered to retreat to the shelters.
Tabri swarmed over the city once more. They had orders to allow the civilians to evacuate. Michel had something planned for them and therefore they would be. They took missiles in their AT-fields for individual Lilim. Michel had ordered them to protect Lilim and therefore they did. A few even got moderately hurt.
Some Tabri immediately began the offensive. They were not handpicked but simply were the ones best used to the offensive. Although he disagreed that the civilians should be protected so strongly Mendial led the charge.
Mendial lifted up a tank and heaved it a full 100 meters. It crashed into a pair of hummers and exploded. A VTOL spewed rockets at him and Mendial raised his modest AT-field to deflect them. Nearby another Tabri, Semian, whipped his field up to the VTOL and destroyed it. Mendial gave him a nod and Semian followed him. Mendial now had a private anti-aircraft turret.
The pair ran across the fields outside of Tokyo-3. Waves of projectiles exploded all around them but they continued. As they ran Mendial spied something he wanted. He jumped down into a small trench and onto a group of soldiers. He smiled and smacked them all down quickly. Then he lifted his prizes out of the dead soldier's hands.
A cruise missile hit the trench and soldiers rushed to surround the crater. Several tanks pulled up as well and aimed their primary guns into the dense smoke. Suddenly the smoke parted, as if by AT-field, and Mendial walked out clutching a minigun in each hand. He opened up and cut down soldiers by the tens. Semian returned now and began to deal with the tanks. In seconds several hundred soldiers were obliterated into nothing more then pulp.
After less then twenty minutes the UN began to pull back. The ferocity of the Tabri had startled them. 7, 859 casualties in twenty minutes was previously unheard of. It would never be unheard of again. Veterans of the battle would've spoken of it for years. Woulda coulda shoulda.
"Wake up sleepy head," spoke a voice. It seemed so far away but Zacherial knew it must be close. He groaned and put one arm to his head. He managed to sit up in the rubble produced from him going through the building. He groaned once more, winced, and looked around. Standing not far away was a familiar form.
"What do you want?" he said in between groans.
Andinesial looked at him from orange iris and smiled. "Why just to make sure you're okay of course!" he mocked.
Zacherial scowled at the boy-Tabri. "Of course you are. Come on, we're under attack."
Now Andinesial's irises were blue and green, respectively. "Fine then silly. Let's go." His voice was terribly childish for the first sentence and then amazingly menacing for the second. Zacherial got up and they went to battle. Separately of course. Zacherial knew the Tabri of Chaos couldn't be trusted in battle let alone anything. Besides, Andinesial worked better alone. Much much better.
The Tabri held up in the city never got any fighting. The Tabri sent out on the offensive had tasted blood and wanted more. When the UN pulled out Mendial immediately asked Michel permission to follow the soldiers to their original camps. Michel said yes.
Mendial set out at thirty miles per hour. It wasn't to fast that he would be tired when he caught up to the soldiers. Beside him ran Semian and further back many others. Mendial had been given a whole fifty Tabri. It was good to be one of the favored.
As they ran Mendial struck up a conversation with Semian, "Have your wounds from your beating healed yet?"
"Almost entirely," was the only reply from Semian.
'Pathetic of him,' thought Mendial, 'to be stopped by someone as weak as Leslen.' "You know, you really were over punished for that mistake. It wasn't something you could predict."
Semian's ears twitched and he smiled slightly at this. "I'm listening," was all he said.
They ran on and talked. They caught the soldiers. They made them pay for their ignorance. Not one whole soldier returned to their base. A few pieces did though.
Rei Ayanami sat up. Once more she could feel them coming. It was just like last time except this time there were three of them.
She could also tell they were stronger and not nearly as stupid. They destroyed the engines of the ship before she was even aware of them. The ship wasn't going anywhere even if the assailants failed.
"They are coming." she whispered to Gendo. He nodded. "The two of you must stay back if you are to survive." Rei continued. Another nod and Gendo and the Section Two agent took a few steps back from the doorway.
Rei flexed to ready herself for the attack. 'Wait. What's this? They're retreating already?' she thought.
Sure enough on the top of the ship the assassination team was retreating. They'd done what they were here to do, the charges were planted. Now all they had to do was capture the first child when she ran.
Rei never ran. On the port side, just below the water line the explosives created a gaping hole. The ship began to roll to port, immediately sinking into the sea when it was flipped. Fortunately for the NERV refugees they had booked passage on the starboard side.
A hundred feet above the sinking cruiser Bornus and his strike team waited standing on their AT-fields. They looked down on the water around the cruiser waiting for the blue haired girl to surface. When she did all three of them would grab her and take her back to Tokyo-3. It was a simple plan, but it had taken a great deal of toil to pull off. It just had.
Suddenly right in front of Bornus' own eyes Cornelius' AT-field dropped out from around him. He plummeted into the ocean with a look of absolute surprise on his face. He hit the water with an audible slap and was not seen again. Bornus looked up at Korcernie in disbelief. She didn't return his look; she was already falling to follow Cornelius into the water.
Bornus offered up a small prayer to the messengers and then he fell himself. Not one of these Tabri would ever be heard of again.
After dispatching the three attackers Rei allowed the buoyancy of her AT-field to increase. She and Gendo surfaced into destruction. Around them broken pieces of the ship floated. Somewhere in this mess was the Section Two agent, they didn't bother to find his corpse. Rei constructed a raft out of destroyed ship pieces and her AT-field and they continued to Australia minus one expendable.
Unfortunately it was monsoon season.
Michel walked out to the podium and looked out at his followers. It wasn't the biggest gathering ever, not by far, but it was at least two-thirds of the Tabri.
These were the most faithful to Michel. Any he doubted had been sent away to kill the children. The hardest part of Tabri being so strong and nearly invincible to anything besides an Evangelion was that they could not have "accidents" easily. Still, Michel's enemies were for the most part on the run with what remained of the Third Group.
Death's failure was a terrible blow. Death had spoken of greatly increased power and even an essence change. That was unheard of. The…former leader of the conclave had never been that strong. He'd been strong, yes, but no one was better then Death. Until now. Death said it had even sensed the power of a messenger.
Michel smiled out at the Conclave of the Tabri. The applause had died down by now and it was time for Michel to begin to speak. "The Lilim have dared attack us in our new home! What say you my brothers and sisters?"
The assembled Tabri roared in disgust of the UN attack. They wanted blood and Michel knew it. "They have dared to break their agreement with us. They have assaulted us with everything but their unholy N2 weapons. If they will do this what is next? Are we to assume by this that they have sided with the children? Do they harbor them even now?"
The Tabri yelled in anger. These were his and he could control them so easily now. Michel could still remember back when they had scorned him. Now they embraced him so readily. "What will we do to them now siblings? We must destroy them! We will rule this island of Japan in a matter of days with our strength!" Michel hadn't wanted to do it. He wanted to keep Tabri out looking for the children but this change in events demanded a response. "We will destroy the UN and their masters in a matter of days!"
The assembled conclave surged like they wanted to attack the UN right then. They hungered for blood. Michel immediately began giving orders out. They would destroy the infidels now.
SEELE was from all over the world.
All over the world attacks were launched. Tabri in triads assaulted and destroyed the old men. None escaped. Supercomputers were destroyed. Mansions were burned. Families were slaughtered.
Thirteen families were erased from existence. Cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers, and sisters were all killed off for being related to SEELE members. There would be no threads to what they had done; no one would resurrect SEELE ever again. Michel had eradicated it in a well timed fifteen minutes.
In India there are thick jungles and open grasslands. Through these Asuka and Logani walked at a brisk pace. They needed to cover several miles every day; Logani could not keep up the essence protection wall forever.
Death could literally lurk around any corner. If they couldn't change their essences Death would follow them. If they couldn't do it all the time Death would eventually find were they had gone. Without knowing it they led Death straight towards Australia.
Asuka harrumphed. She had been following this guy like this for days now. He hadn't told her anything at all. She was sick of it and decided to make a stand. "OK. I'm not walking another step until I get some answers."
"If we stop Death will find us." Logani returned quietly as he broke stride to turn and look at her.
"Well how long do we have to keep going before Death won't be able to find us?" Asuka demanded.
Logani really didn't want to answer that. Possible forever was the real answer. Instead he changed the subject, "Fine. You want answers you need to ask some questions."
Asuka was so delighted that she would finally get some answers that she completely missed his not answering her last question. She settled down rather quickly and got to questioning. "First, what's your name?"
"Logani. Can we go now?" was his answer.
"After one question?" Asuka rolled her eyes at him. "No way! You've got a lot to answer for."
"Yippee. Ask then."
"Second, what was that thing that attacked us?"
"Death, it's the most powerful single organism on the planet. We were very lucky to survive."
"If it was so strong how is it that we survived?"
"Like I said we got lucky. I figured out a way to avoid its gaze."
That is incorrect. I figured out to avoid its gaze.
'I'd rather not tell her about you right now. She'd freak out if I told her I had a messenger in me.' Ireul seemed to agree with him on this now and was quiet. Logani had had to shield his thoughts for some time now and it was surprisingly easy. Just think about what you saw and you were fine. It did make planning dificult though.
"OK. Who were those people who attacked us before Death? The ones who killed Aoba." asked Asuka
"Those were Tabri. In a nutshell we are sons of Tabris, the seventeenth angel," Logani replied.
"Wait. Us? Tabris? Tabri?" Asuka was thoroughly confused now.
Logani put a hand to his head as he thought about everything Asuka had missed because of her induced comma. It had been quiet a lot. "Tabris was the last angel killed by the third child." He said choosing to answer they second question first.
"Shinji beat him? Must have been one week angel for that baka to kill him alone."
Logani's fist immediately balled up at this insult. Without a word he turned and began walking. 'If you can't say anything nice shut the hell up' as his mother said long ago. The phrase had changed quiet a bit with time.
"Hey! Where are you going? I'm talking to you here! Don't you walk away from me!" yelled Asuka after him.
Logani ignored her but was slightly bemused to hear her following once more. He'd called her bluff. 'I knew she wouldn't stop following. Was probable too tired to keep walking and just wanted to stop and rest,' thought Logani. He started looking at scenery once more. It kept Ireul quiet at least.
Michel smiled once more. 'This must be the greatest find here yet.' he thought.
Ever since the Tabri had taken over Tokyo-3 Michel had begun walking around the lower levels as a means to clear his head. Several rooms had already become torture chambers. Lilim screaming always had soothed him.
Now, far below the other passages Michel had found something worth more then half the conclave's support. Lilith stared down at him from upon her cross. This was a very great find indeed.
"I have many plans for you grandmother," Michel intoned "You were one of the missing links in my plans but now that I have you I will truly become a God. Now I just find grandfather and the children and it will all be over." Beneath her mask Lilith's eyes bugged out. Michel smiled once more.
Two forms, soaking wet, reached the huge iron door. One reached up his hand and knocked with the little strength that remained in his body. The knock was unnecessary and the man should've known it. Before even his second knock the door had begun to peal back and the two figures collapsed into the entry room.
After a long moment feet appeared in front of the man. He barely managed to crane his head up to look into sad eyes.
"Gendo Ikari," said the mouth connected to the sad eyes, "you should not have come here."
Gendo Ikari felt sleep take him. 'Was I wrong to think that Julius would protect us?' he thought before he was fully unconscious. Rei lasted only a moment longer and then she too was asleep.
I rambled, and their was destruction. Fitting title.
Thanks once more to AnimeFan64 for proofreading. I hope his help makes the wait worthwhile.
I know it took a long time but it seems like no one reads this anyway. For 6 chapters I have five reviews. Ones even written by me. How stupid is that?
r&R