Disclaimer: Same As Chapter 1.
Chapter 47: Luke
Shinji stared at Unit-01 helplessly. He knew now that he had to go. However, the only thing now standing between him and his Evangelion was a mountain of rock-solid Bakelite, the result of overflow from the upper floors. He didn't know if the beast could hear him, or if he was even sure of what he was doing. Nontheless, he clenched the fists laying at his sides while screwing up his face in concentration.
...Please...I have to go...I have to fight...I have to save these people...I don't want anyone else to die...please...
Without warning, the Cage shook as Unit-01 began to struggle against its crimson prison of its own accord. With minimal effort, the armor-clad demon shattered the solid plastic barrier, then slammed a hand into the wall just above where Shinji stood. He looked at the Eva as if finally recognizing someone from days long gone.
"...Mother..."
Asuka managed to avoid the blows of two more MPs, though her movement was greatly hindered by the heavy blade in her hands. Thinking quickly, she swung the blade horizontally, catching one of them in the side and knocking the Eva down with a crash, then thrust the long end of the weapon into its chest. The beast moaned in pain as the massive blade splintered its core, impaling it to the ground. Unit-02 succeeded in avoiding the swinging of the downed MP's compatriot, then smashed the red Eva's palm into the beast's face, causing blood to fly from the force of the impact. With her path clear, Asuka ran for the only remaining armament lift, and was grateful to see a spare Prog knife and long-handled axe planted on the retractable shelf. She grabbed both just before the sound of pounding feet behind her alerted her to another attack.
"Give me a break already!" She swung the axe around at her unprepared foe, barely missing but managing to shift its position enough to catch the retaliatory swing with the pole section of her weapon.
Kaworu gazed forlornly at the pair of bodies that lay only a short way from him. He wondered to himself why these two could be so cruel to each other. What had made them so desolate as to throw their lives away?
...Because...that is what they desired. Not just them, he thought with dawning comprehension, but all mankind. To be relieved of their suffering by the potion of death.
The boy clenched and unclenched his hand, breathing out a sigh as he realized that SEELE had been right all along. He quietly approached Lilith. Before he could touch its amorphous pale surface, a voice shot out from behind him.
"KAWORU!"
He turned his head to see Major Katsuragi, standing on the opposite shore of the pool of LCL, a gun cocked in her left hand. Her face expressed the deepest possible degree of fury and pain and sorrow and desperation rolled into one.
"...Step away from that thing. Now."
Unit-02's axe, while just as long as the MP's weapons, was much lighter, making it a far better melee weapon for Asuka. Using the butt of the pole, she knocked the MP she was fighting back, then followed up with a blow that split the skull in two. A fountain of blood sprang up, soaking Unit-02 but not hindering its pilot as she ran at an MP in the distance.
Suddenly her monitor alerted her to the sound of an incoming projectile. She quickly turned and raised her AT Field, catching the object in midair. It's contact with the distorted barrier of space and time was making hexagons of light radiate from the point where the long gray object had made contact. Asuka couldn't remember seeing anything like it in her life, but the moment she saw its peculiar shape, a military fork twisted and contorted like a strand of DNA, she instantly realized what it was.
"...The Lance of...Longinus?"
Kaworu only stayed where he was, staring at her with an indeterminable expression. He heard the hammer click on the Major's gun as she aimed at where his head was, though she seemed to have trouble holding it in her weaker hand.
"I'm serious! If you don't move away from the Angel, I WILL kill you!" Misato's steely determination faltered when she heard the silver-haired boy speak.
"...Why?" She blinked, uncertain of what he meant.
"What?"
"Why...does this hurt so?" He paused for a moment, then continued, never taking his eyes off the violet-haired woman. "Ever since the last battle...I've felt as though...as though something inside me was broken." The woman stared at Kaworu, the cold fury in her eyes growing softer with each passing moment.
"I..." he whispered quietly, but the sound reflected easily off the walls of the cavernous room. "...I do not wish to do this. But...I don't know...what else to do... Perhaps...it would be better if you killed me..."
Even though it had stopped, the facsimile of the Lance pressed deeper into Unit-02's AT Field, threatening to tear it apart. Asuka dropped her axe and used both hands to maintain the integrity of her barrier, but the Lance refused to stop moving. She groaned from the force pressing against her, gritting her teeth as she pushed as hard as she could.
"Damnit..."
Suddenly she could feel the wall of air giving out, shattering like glass in her hands. Without even thinking, her body given greater agility from death staring her in the face, she moved slightly to the side as the AT Field collapsed. It wasn't much, but the barely noticeable shift to the left made the double-point of the slender weapon miss her head, where it would have landed if the barrier had fallen just a moment before. She surprised herself further by actually grabbing the long end of the Lance out of midair as it began to fly past, screaming in pain and from adrenaline as the spear stopped in her clenched hands. The MP that threw the Lance had no time to react as Asuka activated her spare Prog knife and in a rage threw it, sending it flying end over end until it came to a stop right in the beast's chest, shattering its core with a single blow.
"YOU THINK YOU BASTARDS CAN KILL ME LIKE THAT!" She roared as she ran at the the ninth and final MP.
It only took Misato a moment looking at the boy's genuinely sorrowful face to drop her gun to the floor with a clatter. Suddenly, in that moment, she understood. He wasn't a monster. He wasn't a soulless creation of SEELE, meant to do nothing but their own will. In that face, she saw Shinji and Rei at the same time-- desperate, lost, alone and helpless against the hand of fate.
Unit-01 burst out of the lift once it reached the surface of the decimated city. Shinji blinked in surprise at what he saw: the scattered, disfigured corpses of bleach-white monsters that looked a little like Evas, and whole sections of the grassy fields below him drenched in blood. Before he could even begin to sort out what must be going on, he heard a familiar scream over the intercom.
Asuka!
He turned and sure enough, she was running at another of the atrocities, both it and Unit-02 wielding what looked like steel versions of the Lance of Longinus. He didn't dwell too much on it, he only began running to the faraway pair.
"Asuka, hold on!"
"...No," she said quietly. Kaworu looked up at her, uncertain he had heard her correctly.
"Major...This is what I was created for. To become one with Lilith and to bring about the Rapture of man. Without this...I have no other purpose." Misato shook her head gently.
"You're wrong." He blinked at her, uncertain of what to say. "People aren't given purposes. You have to find your own reason for being. No one can make that decision for you." Slowly, Misato extended her hand, even though they were separated by the viscous red liquid. "...You don't have to do this, Kaworu. You can still make your own choice. Come with me. You can leave this place. There doesn't have to be a Third Impact."
The boy locked his scarlet eyes onto Misato's hand, outstretched in friendship and goodwill.
"...I...can choose...?" he said, barely able to believe that such a thing was even possible. No one had ever presented such a possibility to him. It seemed too good to be true. But Misato nodded, a small smile on her face.
"Yes. ...We can help you, Kaworu."
He hesitantly took a step away from the crucified Angel towards Misato.
Asuka didn't hear Shinji's voice or see Unit-01. Her thoughts were focused entirely on the MP straight ahead.
"THIS IS THE LAST ONE!" she bellowed triumphantly as she thrust her Lance straight at the monster's head. The MP saw her coming and dodged, using Unit-02's speed and strength against it, making it go straight past. The Eva let out a horrible roar as it swung its own Lance at Unit-02's back, but Asuka quickly recovered, ducking at the waist to avoid the blow. She flipped her spear's twin prongs around and thrust backwards to pierce the MP through its chest from behind, but it jumped back just enough to avoid the lethal attack.
The eyes of Unit-01's pilot widened as he saw Asuka struggling with the MP. He pulled out his vibrating blade from the Eva's shoulder guard and pushed harder against the induction levers, trying to make Unit-01 move faster.
Unit-02 twisted its strong hand around so as to get a better grip on the spear, then made a wide horizontal spin with the weapon, stopping on contact with the MP's lance. The two giants locked weapons, pushing against each other in an attempt to force their opponent back. Asuka's blue eyes burned cold and hard as she put in just enough strength to give herself leverage, then ran Unit-02's hand straight through the MP's fleshy abdomen. She was breathing hard, but victoriously as she twisted her arm, making more blood squirt from around the obstruction the monster's body.
"Heh...did you think...that youever had a chance!" she said with a twisted grin at the MP as it howled from its injury. "Did you think that I'd be weak? I don't HAVE any weaknesses!" She pulled her arm out of the MP, letting it fall to the ground as she gripped the Lance with its point at the ground. She raised it over the copycat Eva's still-alive form, then prepared to deliver the final blow when something happened. Suddenly, in place of the MP she saw the form--the gentle face of a boy with silver hair and kind red eyes.
Kaworu...
She hesitated for only a moment, but that was all it took for the MP to drive its Lance through Unit-02's chest and into its core. Shinji stared in shock, his Eva rooted helplessly to the spot where it stood as Unit-02 hesitated for just a moment before collapsing helplessly to the ground, the Lance still going straight through its body.
"...Asuka?" Shinji whispered as he turned on the video feed to the red Eva, and at first got only static. "Asuka! ASUKA, SPEAK TO ME!" Finally the static transformed into a view of the interior of Unit-02's decimated Entry Plug, and the blank, wide, dead eyes of its occupant.
No... She can't be...she can't be...
But as his eyes continued to take in the lifeless body of his fellow pilot, of the only friend he had left, images began to flash through his mind.
Asuka...
Toji...
Kaji...
Rei...!
Without any warning, he let out a horrible scream, a lament that all present at NERV heard.
Kaworu shuddered suddenly and gripped at his chest. He'd just felt it.
Asuka...!
He stopped where he was as Misato blinked and looked hard at him.
"...Kaworu? Kaworu, what's wrong?" She barely heard his response as he stared at the ground on his hands and knees.
"...she's dead..."
"What?" Misato half-yelled, uncertain of what he had said. Slowly Kaworu stood up, but now his eyes were as lifeless as before. He turned away from Misato and gazed at Lilith.
"...It's too late..." the boy muttered as he avoided looking at the Major, whose eyes widened once she saw him begin to walk back to the Angel.
"Kaworu, what are you doing!"
"...There's nothing left here for me, Major. All that remains...is this." With that, the silver-haired boy slowly began to rise into the air, pulled up by the sleeping Angel's power.
"No, Kaworu! Don't do this! KAWORU!"
But Misato's plea fell on deaf ears. She swallowed as she bent down to pick up the pistol, then took aim and fired. To her shock, Kaworu didn't even flinch from the blast. He only gazed at where the 'face' of Lilith would have been if it wasn't concealed by its metal plate.
Lilith...take Adam unto yourself once more. End man's pointless cycle of suffering and lonliness.
And please...take me to Asuka's side.
He shut his eyes as he saw part of Lilith's flesh begin to move and prepared to be absorbed into her. But instead he felt a pair of strong hands at his throat. He opened his eyes in shock at the two slender, anthropomorphic arms that had formed out of Lilith's body and were now strangling the life out of him.
"Wh...what...?" He managed, barely able to breathe. Misato had dropped her pistol again and her mouth was hanging open speechless.
Did you believe...that I would grant YOUR wish, traitor?
Kaworu had no chance to answer Lilith's question before his neck snapped like a twig, making his body go instantly limp. Without another word, the mother of all the living absorbed Kaworu's dead body into herself, Adam and all.