Incursion

Off the coast of New York, a fierce battle was being waged. Two titanic monsters clashed together beneath the waves with slow but insane force. One fought with the driven determination of a human, the other with a certain alien detachment, its will not its own. The sound of their struggle carries through the water around the world, and through this darker things observe them.

For a while the battle is even. But as the first tense seconds of confrontation turn into hours, the human began to get sloppy. Eventually a follow-through was executed that should have been pulled, and the human was pinned against the sea floor.

The alien victor is motionless for a long while. It had accomplished its task, it would now wait for further instruction. There had been a time, long ago, when the behemoth had been of its own mind, wild and free. It had danced in the currents and dwelt in the fallen cities that dotted the Pacific. But then its master, a being that had been old when the Sun was young, had arisen from the deepest parts of the ocean, and the great titan was now little more then a pawn.

From the north came the sound of flutes.

The creature wrapped its many arms around the fallen foe, and then, an action that defied all physical law. It threw…

Shinji was enjoying a cup ramen, sealed air-tight well before Second-Impact, on the bridge. He was sitting in a chair normally reserved for the Lieutenant, who was at the moment harassing an operator. Central Dogma, as Lt. Katsuragi had called it, was fairly quiet for a nerve center (not a pun). Shinji absorbed that peace, and it made the noodles all the better.

Then everything went to hell.

It started right in front of him. A rapid beeping from an operator's computer. The young woman, who had been totally absorbed in a paperback novel, dropped the book and started slamming the keyboard with her hands. Or typing. All Shinji could see was her back.

Then the lights turned red, and the most wonderfully ear-splitting klaxon sounded.

That was how Asuka Langley Sohryu, late of Germany, the ocean, and most recently the sky, came to Arkham Shelter. The crimson humanoid hit as a blur, directly over the hidden base, but with much less force then should have been possible. It landed cheek and shoulder to the ground and rolled half a mile before at last coming to rest. Aside from an impressive impact crater, at the bottom of which the shelter's armor gleamed, the damage done by this extraordinary event was minor. Except, of course, to the ballistic.

"Segments thirteen, twenty four, and five are broken!" Maya was screaming.

"AT Field deployed at the last second, the Magi are reporting an 85 percent difference between real and projected damage…" Another voice.

"Get the pilot on comm.!" Misato was shouting.

"We can't! It's a newer protocol," came the response.

Shinji absorbed all this while throwing away his half-finished cup Ramen and walking to the side of the Bridge.

Something like two dozen people were working at computer terminals below, running from one location to another, speaking calmly or screaming into headsets. All Shinji could do was watch, and even then he still had no clear idea of what was going on. A botched space flight, maybe? What else could hit that hard and have people inside to communicate with? From the bridge it had felt like an N2 mine going off, a sensation Shinji was reasonably accustomed to. Though he thought they had discontinued the space program years ago.

"I'll take it from here, Lieutenant," came a hard female voice behind him.

A blonde woman strode onto the platform. About the same age as Katsuragi, slightly taller, a beauty mark that might have been fake…

"Ritsuko, it's the Second Child, she…" Misato tapped Maya, who began a technical explanation.

"Take him down to the launch bay." Ritsuko said, gesturing to Shinji. "I'm better equipped to handle this."

Shooting the other woman a hurt (or angry?) look, the Lieutenant hurried Shinji off the bridge.

"What is happening?" Shinji asked, voice filled with more worry then he would have liked.

"There are…" Misato stopped at a pair of sealed doors, tapped a code into the inlaid keypad, and led him through. "This complex is under the jurisdiction of NERV, a organization backed by the UN."

She led him into a small elevator, and punched the lowest key. "Our purpose is to counteract the instigators of the Incident… Second Impact, and return Earth to its original state." The elevator slowed, the door opened, Misato led him out.

"Our mainstay is the artificial humanoid armored unit, the Evangelion. Three currently exist, one of which just hit us after being catapulted a great distance by an unknown force." She paused at an intersection and took out a much-creased map. "Like a goddamn labyrinth…" she muttered in English.

Deciding on a path, she continued. "You were transported here because you are a candidate to pilot one of these units. Very few people have the ability to synchronize with an Eva, and unfortunately those that do were all born after Second Impact."

That took a moment to sink in. "Wait… there's someone my age up there? Why…"

Misato stopped and cut him off. "We don't have time for questions right now. I'll gladly answer any you might have, but after this is over."

The "after this is over" made Shinji's stomach turn.

They finally found their way to the launch bay, a massive cavern, completely dark. The walkway was outlined in luminous tape. Lt. Katsuragi led him some distance, then a snap and beep and she was talking into her cell phone again.

"Divert power to holding bay 01." The young woman ordered.

The lights came on.

Shinji screamed.

His first impression was that of a great purple grinning skull, and his reaction was fairly characteristic. The Evangelion, even submerged to its chin, was a fairly awesome sight. Though officially this chamber was kept unlit for reasons of energy economy, it was really because the engineers that had built it would come in after hours or on their breaks to stare at it. After a while, that sort of thing got creepy.

The head was oddly flat, contrasted by a horn that erupted from the bridge of the nose. Great empty eye sockets stared out, armored teeth were outlined in red, and a fin thrust out on either side and around the back of the head.

"That is an Evangelion?" The boy asked, nearly stammering. "Why does it look so sinister?"

"Because that is the way they are described in the Scrolls." Came a voice far overhead.

Shinji turned.

Faced his father.

The specifics were impossible to discern, given the distance, the Commander being in a control room far overhead, but there was a commonality in feature and expression between estranged father and son that was shocking to observe. Misato felt herself stepping back…

The young man was shocked into silence, not so much finally meeting a father he barely remembered, but the sudden rush of emotion that accompanied it. Through his awful memories of the First Shelter, through his endless rationalizations to account for his father's actions…

The man was here now, and Shinji would have answers.

"What happened to my mother!?"

-

There was a pregnant pause as the commander looked down at his son, standing in front of the Evangelion. For a long moment Gendou expected his son to break down, to apologize. That moment passed.

Gendou Ikari did not love anything. There were things he enjoyed doing, but Yui had truly ruined him for all others. His son didn't know it, but he was now a front line soldier in a war that had waged for almost two decades, even before the Second Impact. Reports from Shelter Four, from whence Shinji had come, had painted the image of a weak, callow young man. Perhaps the train incident had brought about a kind of resolution within the boy.

Gendou Ikari did not love Shinji. What he felt was surprise and perhaps a little pride. These emotions were quickly shunted away, as they always were, and the commander of NERV pushed his son's question aside. Time was a factor.

-

His father didn't even acknowledge him. "Lieutenant Katsuragi, we have an incursion originating from the maritime sector. The Magi place its ETA at thirty minutes. Please contact Dr. Akagi and advise her on the tactical deployment of our forces."

"What condition is the Second Child in?" the young woman asked.

"Irrelevant," came the cold reply. "Eva Unit Two is no longer operational. The S2 Engine has been damaged beyond the limits of self-regeneration."

At this, the lieutenant opened her phone and started speaking rapidly.

Finally, the commander addressed his son directly. "You will deploy in Unit One, the thing before you. You will either salvage the remains of Unit Two or engage its antagonist."

The young man looked at the massive head behind him, and then at his father. "I don't know anything about this!" he yelled. "I can't even drive a car!"

"You will be instructed." The older man said.

"Don't I get a say in any of this? You want me to go aboveground…" at this Shinji's finger stabbed straight up, "and fight some…" and then he was cut off.

Men with guns had materialized on either side of Gendou. Guns that were pointed at the reluctant pilot.

"You don't have a choice!" The deep voice echoed through the room and almost knocked Shinji off his feet. "Under Article Sixteen of the Emergency Human Rights Act, those people squandering governmental assets will be confined in isolation or executed. If you disobey this order the men and material that were expended to transport you were wasted."

As one, the armed men cocked their weapons.

"Commander, he's just a boy!" Katsuragi was suddenly in front of him, putting herself between Shinji and his father. "He's just… its too much to ask anyone to take all this in so quickly!"

Shinji tried to push past her. "You bastard!" he screamed. "I was forced to come here! I didn't even know what was..."

He was out cold before the gun reports were heard. Six small darts stitched the middle of his chest, up to his shoulder. One had struck Misato's arm, and she angrily yanked it out while supporting Shinji.

"He's no good to us drugged!" she yelled, but kept her tone even.

Even at a distance, Misato knew the commander was smiling.

-

The Lieutenant sat across from him in the train carriage, skin made orange in the evening star. Shinji yawned and stood.

"How much further?" he asked conversationally, looking at the Nipponese hillside as it rolled past.

"It all depends on choice, Shinji." The young woman replied.

The boy looked back at her, and grinned. "What do you mean? This is a train, it has a departure, and a destination. It doesn't stop anywhere. There is no choice here."

"This is not a true image. This image has been crafted by another…" Misato stood, and suddenly she wasn't wearing any clothes. "They are trying to distract you, to make you complacent."

Shinji wasn't looking at the young, beautiful woman's face anymore. As he took in her wonderful curves, her voice began to fade… and then she walked over, grabbed his face and brought it level with hers. "This train runs parallel to the light and dark. For now, it goes towards neither. It is your will, and that alone that can guide you. Wake up. WAKE UP!"

And Shinji surged back to consciousness.

Two things clicked at the same time. One, he was aboveground. Two, he was drowning. Flailing violently, pressing against the ceiling of his confinement, he beat his fists against the unyielding metal and screamed with his burning lungs. In front of him was a vista of devastation, the brown plain of the Earth. As his vision dimmed and his contortions grew spastic, that image, that place, became vivid to him.

There were the dead trees, stripped of everything save their bleached trunks. They looked like gravestones. There was a gentle dip in the earth where a river had once flowed. The Earth was all rocks and dirt and death. Nothing grew here anymore. And far in the distance, a mountain moved towards him. It spoke to him, and he could just barely hear its voice over the song of the dusty winds.

It wanted him to breath. And he did.

LCL flooded his bleeding lungs, and Shinji was pulled back from the abyss.

Stars danced in his vision, and the roaring of the 'wind' receded. The voice was still there. In a half-thinking delirium, Shinji recognized it as belonging to the blond who had supplanted Katsuragi on the bridge.

"…should have put him in a plug suit Sir!" she was saying.

"Hello?" The boy croaked out, his throat suddenly burning.

He was really there. The last of the fog lifted from Shinji's head and he took in the view he knew was real. He was aboveground. A shock went through him at that, and he froze.

"Shinji, this is Dr. Akagi, we met earlier on the Bridge. You are in the entry plug of Unit One." Why was she being so calm? She had sent him aboveground! He was going to die!

"…underground. Put me back under the ground!" the boy yelled, looked about and yanking at a handle…

…that turned out to be a control. The view started to turn to the left. Shinji snatched his hand away as though the handle were hot.

"You work for NERV now," the woman was patiently explaining. "Our objectives are now yours. You will not be allowed to return to the Geo-Front until you complete your mission."

For a moment Shinji was ready to deflate, but surprising strength flowed through him, and instead he got angry.

"What is my mission, then?" he said, relishing the sharp way the words rolled off his tongue. He had no intention of letting them enjoy this.

"Immediately ahead of you is the target. You are to destroy it by any means necessary. If you'll press the top right button in your left control yolk, the Eva will deploy its progressive knife."

Shinji gripped the handle, the yolk, again, and did as instructed. The view tilted as a giant hand came into and out of few, grabbing something at what must have been shoulder height. When it withdraw it held a massive knife that glowed a dull red.

"Good, good," the voice was murmuring. "You weren't awake when the Eva was activated, so we need to run you through the synchronization sequence again. I'm rebooting the OS now…"

The entry plug went dark. The last view of that tall moving something had been very close.

Then… light! A million colors that were somehow all shades of white assaulted Shinji's vision. He felt something within him beginning to unfurl, and then it was like he was falling forwards…

The screen reactivated. Suddenly the entry plug was no longer amber-colored, but bathed in white light. Shinji could no longer 'see' the LCL. The monster loomed huge on the view screen, and it was all Shinji could do not to take. A step. Back.

The Evangelion took one step backwards.

In Central Dogma everyone on the bridge stared at the screen, the sole exception being Ritsuko. Her eyes were locked on the synchronization readout.

It read 89.4. Easily thirty percent beyond their best expectations.

Then the ratio dropped to 71.

On the massive holographic display, the Eva started to lose its balance.

Shinji didn't automatically connect his thought with the Eva's action. He panicked.

-

Something was very wrong. Suddenly the darkness was eating away at him again. His terrible memories came bubbling to the surface. He slipped in and out of vital knowledge. He forgot how to walk. How do I breath?

The shoggoths of his mind were trying to get out. The specters of terror wanted to go home! They were born of the seed of the Old Ones, hunted by those Whom Dwelt on Forbidden Leng!

The living shadows were the foot soldiers of that great and terrible army. Ones sired in the frozen wastes, in the darkest trenches of the ocean, in primeval wooded thickets, in the dank pits of Ancient Yuggoth!

-

"His Eco-Border is fragmenting!"

"Sync ratio can no longer be determined!"

"The AT Field is folding in on itself, the Eva is defenseless!"

-

He was back on the old-fashioned train again. The girl with the wispy white hair was there, and so was Lt. Katsuragi.

"I'm scared," the girl was saying. "I want to go home. Let me out, Shinji."

"Don't." Misato said. "She is your darkest memory. Don't let her rule you. Pain can only breed more pain."

"Where is your home?" Shinji asked the girl softly.

-

Central Dogma was filled with the sounds of chanting. Through the audio feed from Unit One's entry plug came a deep, guttural sound.

" Iae Iae Cthulhu Fthagn!" the voice barked. "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fthagn."

The voice repeated itself over and over and over…

Ritsuko cut the audio feed.

-

Outside, the great and terrible thing that had so soundly defeated Unit Two came to a stop. It had heard something on the winds, something familiar. It was confused.

"I come from many places," the thing that looked like a young girl said. "But for millennia while all others were silent, one being spawned me, fed me, shielded my from the light while I grew strong."

"She's evil, don't you see? She IS the darkness, not something merely borne…" Shinji silenced the image of Misato with a hand. He rose and moved to stand in front of the girl with hair like snow.

"What is the name of this one thing?" He asked her softly, lovingly.

The girl looked up at him with those great blood-red eyes, a smile creeping onto her face, making her all the more lovely. "His name…" she began…

"…is Dagon."

-

Shinji's eyes snapped open, and alien words died on his lips.

In Central Dogma, the tall green mountain surged onto the Evangelion.

"We've failed," Ritsuko murmured.

And suddenly the enemy was flying away, propelled by some unseen force. The freed Eva swayed in the fierce winds, but did not topple.

The sync ratio jumped to 150

-

Will was done faster then thought. The Evangelion leapt through the air, higher then its muscles could possibly propel, and landed on the Other. A red blade flashed out, a fist smashed. A mouth opened and teeth tore into green, rubbery flesh.

In the entry plug Shinji sat motionless. His mind was totally consumed with purpose.

Ropey fragments of the beast flew up and were caught in the winds. The dull, wet slap of armored fist on flesh turned hollow as the flesh and earth gave way to the armor plating of the Geo-Front. The Other screamed with its dozen mouths as organs ruptured. Its brain turned to sludge; its throat and faces were bitten off and consumed. Tentacles feebly wrapped around the marauding Eva, but quickly fell away, shredded.

The girl was on her feet. "Stop!" she was screaming.

Shinji turned in his seat. "It is the father of the Deep Ones," he said tonelessly. "Those things that killed my aunt and uncle. I'll kill it if I can. Along with you."

Everyone in Central Dogma was silent. The scattered audio of the battlefield echoed through the room. Ritsuko was listening to the entry plug feed through an earpiece. She heard what Shinji said.

When Shinji had turned to address the girl, the Eva had done likewise, a startlingly human gesture among an orgy of bestial violence. Suddenly the room was thick with unease and anticipation. What exactly had they unleashed?

When at last the Enemy was either painted in the dirt or spread to the savage winds, the Evangelion stopped. It stood. It roared.

On the train the girl's screams turned savage and inhuman. She launched herself at Shinji, but was repelled back, clothes and flesh shredded.

"That won't work." Shinji found himself saying. "Your father is dead. Just die!" he screamed the last.

The girl vanished.

The pilot of Unit One sank into the arms of the other occupant of the train, the thing with Lt. Katsuragi's face. And for the first time in many years, his dreams were not memories.