Chapter 3

Travelling by foot wasn't Asuka's cup of tea. Having outrun Misato, Asuka had fled into the desert. She trudged, thirsty and tired, through the sun scorched land. The sky blazed a vibrant orange as the sun made its way west, but the heat still beat down upon the girl's shoulders.

She felt as though she had been walking for hours. Only recently had any sign of civilization come into view. It was only a single house, but Asuka was sure she could talk the owner into sparing her lodging for the night. Who could possibly turn her away?

As she began to near the house, it became clear that this was a solitary cabin in the middle of nowhere. Asuka briefly thought back to the wanted poster and began to increase her speed. A horse stood tethered to a post of the porch of the fairly small cabin. The house itself seemed to be well tended and in good condition.

She slowed as she stood a few yards from the porch. A girl sat on the porch, clutching a bleeding leg. She grumbled to herself as she tied a cloth around the wound. Judging from the state of her shirt, the scrap of clothing had previously been a sleeve. She looked up as she heard Asuka approach.

"What do you want?" she demanded angrily. The girl, by Asuka's estimation, must have been in her late teens. Shaggy cyan hair ran down to her shoulders. Other than that, from the details Asuka skimmed over, she seemed to wear otherwise standard garb for the time and place.

Asuka's eye twitched in slight annoyance. "Who lives here?" she said in an equally demanding voice.

The girl gave a light laugh as she stood up. Her sweaty face took on a pained expression as she tried to avoid putting weight on her bleeding leg. "A criminal. But don't worry, she's been taken care of." The girl started to make her way very slowly toward the horse.

"Oh?" Asuka replied simply.

"Yeah. My... 'partner' already took her in for the bounty on her head." She shook her head. "You're a little late if you're looking for the bounty, too."

"Ayanami's gone?" Asuka took stock of the girl's condition, then asked, "She put up a fight?"

"Yep," she responded. "And nope. She didn't put up no fight. My own partner did this to me." Her teeth clenched and her jaw seized up as she growled, "He shot me and figured he could get all the bounty to himself."

"Is your partner the guy that's rumored to be unbeatable?"

The girl turned to regard Asuka straight on. Her arm twitched slightly as she sized Asuka up. "Just so you know, I plan on gettin' that girl from my partner. And you ain't gonna stand in my way."

Asuka noticed the change in the girl's posture. And for the first time, she got a close look at her. The thing that stood out to Asuka most was the girl's tie. It was a simple leather bolo tie with generic silver studs at the ends. The clasp, however, was a circle with an almost beak-like triangle pointing downwards from it. Two round indentations were colored in with black to appear almost like eyes amongst the round shape. Her mind flashed brieftly to images from footage shown to her when she first arrived at NERV.

Asuka's eyes widened slightly as she mumbled, "Sachiel."

At the whispered name, Sachiel's eyes narrowed. Her hand suddenly moved for her gun. Asuka's reflexes kicked in and, quicker than even her own mind registered, her right hand pulled one of her six shooters from its position at her hip. Her left and right hands moved in concert as the right hand brought the hammer of the gun quickly into her left hand. As the heel of her left hand slammed back the hammer, her right index finger flexed against the trigger. And before Sachiel could register the move or even finish drawing her own gun, her white shirt began to grow red. She turned her eyes down to the wound in her chest.

"Well, damn." She turned her eyes back to Asuka and smirked faintly. "You might just be able to beat him. Give him an extra bullet for me." With that statement, Sachiel fell to the ground.

Asuka watched in silence as the girl fell to the ground. She looked down at the gun in her hand before returning it to its holster. The Second Child let out a long, slow breath as she made her way to the body of the first enemy she had made in this new world. She knelt down and looked over the girl.

Without that tie, Asuka never would have guessed this could possibly be the reincarnation of an Angel. The redhead slowly lifted up the fallen girl and removed the tie from around her neck. She slipped it into one of the many pockets on her coat then stood back up. For the first time since coming to America, the gravity and scope of how much things had changed really hit her. She took several steps away from the cabin, noticing that the sky was already growing a deep purple. She gazed across the sand that seemed so endless from this place.

Asuka took in a deep breath and screamed angrily to the desert, "What the hell is with this place! Shinji, you bastard! What did you do to this world!"

She stared solemnly into the distance, moisture at the edge of her eyes. The frustrations of being able to do nothing and the anger at Shinji's cowardice were wearing away at her. She let out a deep sigh as she gazed eastward into the heavens at the stars beginning to appear there.

"What happened to everything?" she asked in a quieter tone.

Her head tilted downward as she started to head back toward the cabin. As she did so, she glanced once more to Sachiel's body. "I guess I should rest before going after Ayanami." She smiled sadly toward the corpse. "I hope you don't mind if I borrow your horse."

Asuka stepped through the door to the cabin, welcoming the shelter from the elements. At least she wouldn't have to face the cold this night.