DISCLAIMER: I don't in any way, shape, or form, by any law in any land, own Evangelion or the characters therein. This story is for my own personal enjoyment.
Speaking of enjoyment, this is your standard reminder that this work is a LEMON, proceed only if you want to read about adult situations.
Standard:
"This" is speech.
'This' is thoughts.
"This" is memories
"This" is weird Angel telepathy
"And The Scales Fell From Mine Eyes"
Katsuragi Apartment: After School
Pen Pen lay in his freezer staring at the ceiling with his fingered flippers desperately trying to hold his pillow tighter to the dark holes that were his ears against the racket coming from the living room.
"Hah!"
"Here I go!"
"Right there!"
Yes! Yes! Yes!"
"That's it!"
"Agghhh!"
Player 2 Wins! The game console displayed in red lettering as the character Asuka chose in the fighting game they were playing struck a victory pose.
"Got you Third!" Asuka exclaimed loudly, reverting back to the old pejorative she used when she was being competitive. "Now pay up!"
Shinji sighed as he put down the controller, stood up, and unbuttoned his school pants before handing the garment over to the redhead who tossed it in the pile of the other clothes she'd won in previous bouts.
Shinji sat back down but Asuka still had an expectant look on her face.
"And?" She said, reminding him of the other payment owed for losing a match.
"Oh!" Shinji said as he remembered, puckered his lips and gave his redheaded lover a peck on the lips.
"Good baka." Asuka said as she rapidly pressed the buttons to set up the next match before adding "You're going down Third!"
Shinji rolled his eyes at her competitiveness before looking at his own pile of "won" clothes.
'I have everything except her bra.' He reflected, not that he needed to look at the pile to know that, Asuka's semi-nude form next to him on the bean bag chair was confirmation enough. 'Why'd she give me her panties before her bra anyway? Women.' Shinji thought as Asuka was scrolling through the character options trying to decide which one to pick and Shinji smiled as he saw her vibrancy and life that had attracted him to her since when they first met.
It was nice having time to just hang out, just the two of them, especially since their homework had become a lot less time consuming since they'd worked out their system.
Since Shinji's better half was a college graduate the material assigned them was laughably easy in concept to the German redhead. However, Asuka, like many students of foreign languages, was excellent at speaking but dreadful at writing. The kanji of the Japanese language being something even her intellect had trouble fully grasping. So their solution was quite simple, talking. Shinji would read the questions out loud, Asuka would think for a moment and dictate an answer to Shinji who then wrote it down. It wasn't exactly academic honesty but the teachers didn't have to deal with Angels now did they.
Her character finally selected, Asuka gave one more verbal tease before hitting the start button. The couple readied their controllers in their hands as the countdown ended and the match began.
A missed block gave Shinji an early advantage, one Asuka soon rectified with her character's special combo. The exchange of jabs, punches, kicks and laser beams, that doesn't really seem fair but okay, continued as both teens leaned forward in their seats. Jaws locked, and teeth grit as their thumbs smashed buttons to make the pixels on the screen do what they wanted. Eventually both had their health bars depleted to where even one hit would be enough. Asuka being the more aggressive of the two had her character lunge forward trying to land the final hit. But Shinji, knowing this was coming, dodged out of the way and, with Asuka's character being defenseless, struck the knockout blow with a kick to the back.
Player 3 Wins! The screen declared. Shinji wasn't sure how Asuka got the game console to switch the numbering of the players, but didn't bother asking either, his thoughts on other things.
Asuka sighed, her earlier zeal gone as she stood up from the bean bag chair a blank look on her face as she turned off the TV and came to stand in front of Shinji on his own cushion.
Wordlessly her hand went behind her back and undid the clasp of her lacey black bra, the undergarment falling onto Shinji's lap before tumbling down his leg and resting above his left knee with each cup on either side of his bare thigh.
"Happy now Third." Asuka deadpanned while looking into his cobalt eyes with her cerulean orbs as she stood naked before him.
"Asuka I-" Shinji began, the desperation evident in his voice before Asuka began laughing so hard she had to wipe a tear away from her right eye before she responded:
"Gott, you're dense baka." Asuka said, now more in control, the smile and life having returned to her face.
"That wasn't very nice." Shinji said half-heartedly as a small grin appeared on his lips. He'd gotten better at reading Asuka's emotions, but he still had trouble knowing when she was screwing with him.
"Baka." Asuka said before she leaned down and covered his mouth with hers. This wasn't like the earlier peck or the dozen that came before that one. This was a kiss where their heads bobbed and danced, their teeth bit the other's lips, their tongues wrestled with the other, and the hot breath of the other's nose tickled their face.
"It feels like your body didn't buy my act." Asuka cooed as the kiss ended and she shifted her hips on Shinji's boxers to emphasize the point.
"I'm so-" Shinji began as old habits die hard, before Asuka put a finger to his lips to stop the words forming.
"Let me make it up to you." Asuka purred seductively as her hand grabbed her discarded bra and tossed it on the pile of other clothes she'd lost to Shinji before she got off Shinji's lap and grabbed the hem of his black boxers. Shinji lifted himself up off the bean bag chair to help Asuka as she pulled them down to his ankles letting his stiff member stand at attention.
Asuka took the cock in her hands and stared down at it, the little hole at the top twitching at her touch and seemingly staring at her as her right hand slowly went up and down his shaft. Asuka's eyes locked with Shinji's as her lips puckered and kissed the one-eyed tip.
Her lips parted and the tip slid into her wet mouth where Asuka's tongue took over. Gently caressing Shinji's cockhead all the while their eyes never broke from one another. Then the German redhead brought in more of his shaft. Her lips feeling every well-known vein and bump as they went until she had his entire member in her mouth. Her throat spasmed and gaged six times as she kept it there before relenting and slowly bringing her mouth back up to Shinji's tip as slowly as she went down and Asuka could swear neither had even blinked during the entire process.
Asuka's eyes finally closed and she focused all her efforts on bringing her lips up and down Shinji's now rock-hard cock as fast as she could, reaching almost every time the base of his shaft. Her right hand stroking his member each time her lips receded back up to the tip.
Shinji's head began to roll back in response to the pleasure he felt but stopped as in the dark reflection on the television screen he could not only see himself and the back of Asuka's bobbing head but also her slit as her ass was stuck out. His eyes were mesmerized by the sight and it took all his self-control to not let his balls release at that moment.
But whether by design or happenstance, Asuka picked that moment to bring her left hand from Shinji's thighs to his balls, fondling the wrinkly sack while her mouth continued its ministrations.
Shinji couldn't take it anymore. His eyelids clamped shut as his hands went to Asuka's head and held it in place, his teeth grit in too much pleasure to give any kind of warning as spurt after spurt of hot cum shot into Asuka's mouth colliding with the inside of her left cheek before pooling around her teeth and tip of her tongue.
Shinji absently felt Asuka's tongue, along with his recently deposited load, whirl around his cock, as she collected it all together before swallowing it down as Shinji's cockhead was still in her mouth before releasing it with a satisfying pop.
Asuka brought a finger up to her lips to check and make sure there weren't any stray strands or drops or her lips, before noticing that Shinji was still rather zoned out and wanted to bring him back to reality as she crouched next to him.
"You can take those back to the bed for me." Asuka whispered into his ear before the tip of her tongue went back and forth across his ear lobe. The sensation causing his legs and arms to quickly become covered in goosebumps.
"Yes…" Shinji responded quietly, his mind still heady from the ecstasy but his body responsive as he picked up the pile of clothes and took them to Asuka's room. He should have known this was Asuka's endgame, it was the only reason why she would have ever suggested something like strip-fighting game.
His ears heard the tell-tale sound of Asuka falling onto the bed behind him as he placed the discarded clothes in Asuka's hamper.
He looked behind him and could see Asuka lying face down on her bed, her body making a star as her limbs seemingly tried to reach all four corners.
This inadvertently, or perhaps purposely, it was Asuka after all, gave Shinji another excellent view of that which had him so entranced before. That most private place, with the rosy pink lips just visible out of the creamy folds the same color of her pale thighs.
Shinji looked down to his hand as it clenched and unclenched a few times as his mind worked out an idea. His little guy needed some time to recharge after all.
So Shinji discarded the last of his own clothes onto Asuka's floor, and crawled onto the bed next to his redheaded lover. Her bright auburn locks flowing around her head like rays from the dawn peeking over mountains.
He rubbed his hands together quickly, the friction heating his hands before her placed them on the silky smooth skin of Asuka's back.
"Ohhh…right there…Shinji…" Asuka managed in a muffled, trailing voice as Shinji's hands found the spot in her lower back that always ached from a lifetime spent in an entry plug.
Shinji ran the open palms of his hands perpendicular to her spine just above her ass, the friction warming the skin and blood vessels beneath so they opened up and loosened her tense muscles in the process. His hands feeling as if they were on fire Shinji redirected his attention to Asuka's left ass cheek and the knot she always complained about, pressing the base of his palm into it to try and alleviate it.
Afterwards his hands got their reward with each one grabbing an ass cheek and squeezing the firm yet supple flesh that flowed between his fingers as he moved his body so he was behind her and looking directly at her petals, glistening in the faint streaks of sunlight coming through the closed blinds.
He wet his two musicians fingers with his tongue before placing them on her outer labia, playing with her external folds as he lowered his body so his face was next to hers.
The sight caused his heart to skip a beat. Her eyes, that piercing crystal azure, her mouth just barely parted as strands of her red hair streaked playfully across her whole face. They stared at one another in that intimate moment before smiles appeared on both their faces and their lips met, lightning coursing through each and goosebumps appearing on both their bare bodies before Shinji remembered his hand existed.
He felt her breath hitch through the kiss as his first finger entered her, followed soon after by the second as they plied different paths in her warm, wrinkly insides, searching for that magic place he knew was there.
Asuka lifted up and rocked her hips a bit to help guide Shinji's digits deeper into her, while her tongue shot out from between her lips and quickly subdued Shinji's own and claiming his mouth as hers.
Shinji felt her lower body twitch as he began curling his fingers inside her, as his ears heard her muffled moans and face felt the warm air of a breath Asuka had been holding. Before long his fingers felt her walls clamp down on his as her body shivered in his grasp and ragged breaths escaped Asuka's lips as the kiss ended and their foreheads rested against one another, Shinji on his side while Asuka remained lying with her frontside down as Shinji extracted his pruney fingers.
The lovers shared another short kiss before Shinji got up and grabbed a pillow from the bed and Asuka raised her ass to accommodate, his intent as obvious as the boner that had been pressing against her thigh during his ministrations.
Her rear propped up on the pillow, Shinji wet the tip of his cockhead with the juices that covered her lips. His member teasing the still sensitive petals before he lined it up at her entrance. Shinji heard an audible gasp come from Asuka as he entered her. The veins of his member disappearing into her as he put his entire length into her, giving Asuka that deep feeling of fullness she longed for.
She propped herself up on her elbows and looked behind her to Shinji's face, eyes entreating. He brought his body down so it was laying atop her backside and their lips locked together as he began moving inside her walls.
His strokes were slow at first as both adjusted to the rhythm. Eventually the kiss broke and Asuka's teeth instead found the sheets of the bed, the fabric scrunching and wetted.
She felt his hot breath against the back of her neck as his pace increased, the heat matched only by the inferno building in her belly. His thrusts seemingly touching every fold of her insides, every sensitive spot of her fleshy interior as a dark splotch began to build beneath their joined hips on the pillow beneath them.
Shinji felt his member seemingly glide in and out of Asuka's pussy, each thrust hilting himself into her before receding and his cockhead feeling her outer lips tickle that sensitive part where head met shaft before plunging back in again. His balls had nearly receded fully as they tightened against his body, and Shinji grunted and grit his teeth to last just a bit longer as he got that feeling that all men get when they are about to cum, that feeling words cannot describe when they know the next stroke or the one after it will be the last one before their balls will not be denied any longer.
With one final plunge into her deepest spot Shinji held his member there as his balls emptied into her. The feeling of his hot seed impacting her walls sending Asuka over the edge as her body shook and her teeth desperately bit down on the now drenched sheets to prevent her mouth from letting out a loud moan.
Shinji gave a few gentle strokes before extracting his member from her but there was simply too much for it all to stay in her and it began to flow out. The cum was dripping out of her pussy, sending a second wave of pleasure to shudder through her body as it passed over her clit, before down her belly to drip onto the pillow beneath her.
Shinji, his manhood spent, lay down next to his German lover, a hand stroking her cheek as her teeth released their grip on the bedspread and her hands removed the pillow from underneath her, tossing it to the side of the bed to be cleaned later. Asuka then nuzzled her face into Shinji's chest, wetting and warming it by the condensation of her hot breath, while the brown haired boy's arms wrapped around her in a tight post-coital embrace.
"Is Misato coming home tonight?" Asuka asked in a quiet voice after some time.
"I think so." Shinji said after a pause to try and remember the NERV Major's schedule.
"Verdammt." Asuka cursed in her native tongue before continuing. "I really wanted you to be with me."
"I'm here now."
"Then we better make the most of it."
NERV Geofront: That same time
Misato Katsuragi, NERV's Operations Director sat at the terminal in the relatively cramped office for someone of her rank. She was trying not to fall asleep as she looked at the accounting department's report that basically said the UN needed to print more money. Well, get its members to print more money, but still.
Then just as her eyelids had nearly closed the spreadsheets of numbers and figures vanished, replaced by a text box with a single sentence written in it:
The gift I left needs to be used soon.
Misato darted up, and quickly looked to check that the door to her office was closed and there were no prying eyes before she typed out a response.
You damn fool. What if someone was here?
But they aren't.
Misato audibly sighed before continuing the conversation, hoping that the person on the other side would understand.
And your end? Her fingers spelt out on the screen hoping he'd found something.
Some interesting threads, but nothing concrete. The NERV Major's hopes were dashed by pixels on a screen before more words appeared.
Time is running out, we need answers to find the truth, to stop what's coming.
Several Days Later: The Eva Cages
"The target is rotating in a fixed position above the Owakudani Valley." Major Katsuragi began as she briefed them on the latest Angel to arrive in Tokyo-3 "Unit-00 will sortie through the 32nd gate, Units 01 and 02 remain on standby."
The Second and Third Children sighed at nearly the exact moment at being held back again. They should have been used to it by now. Out of boredom the German redhead began flicking through the tactical and operational data NERV had.
"It's shifting between blue and orange? What does this mean?" Asuka asked herself as she looked through the MAGI's data transmitted to her entry plug.
"Looks like they're keeping Rei back until they find out." Shinji said as an audio-visual screen appeared and Asuka realized she'd said that last question aloud with the comm link still open. She really needed to be more careful with that.
"Well duh, baka!" Asuka said, her tone temperamental and false, while inside she felt a knot of dread build in her belly.
She didn't really know that much about her teammate, not that the First Child made that task easy. Especially after the last battle with the 15th Angel, where the blue-haired girl had managed to become even more withdrawn, and miss more school.
"Why did we get stuck with this?" Asuka asked Shinji as she flipped over the printouts from school in her hand.
"Well they can only assign two students to the duty, I guess it makes sense to assign the boy and a girl who are also Eva pilots." Shinji said as they walked down the street towards the Neo-Ayanami apartment.
"Jock-stooge is also a pilot!"
"Would you rather he was here than me?" He asked as he turned his head to look at her face.
"Gott, nein," Asuka loudly proclaimed, revulsion clear in her voice for any eavesdroppers before adding in a hushed tone, "Plus I think Hikari had her hand in the assignments anyway. She's paired with the Fourth today for cleaning duty."
"Wonder if they're having as much fun as we did." Shinji whispered back, earning an elbow in the ribs.
"Dummkopf." Asuka hissed through clenched teeth even as her face reddened at the memory.
"Plus weren't you worried about her?" Shinji said recovering quickly, not even apologizing this time.
"Yeah…" Asuka sighed as they got in the elevator to go to Rei's floor. The progress they had made earlier in getting close to Rei had turned to ash. She barely even muttered a pleasantry when they were in the locker room for sync training anymore, whereas before she'd always said an albeit muted greeting or goodbye.
Shinji's finger depressed the doorbell and the couple waited for their colleague to appear.
After a few moments a Rei, dressed in a school uniform despite not going to school, appeared in the open doorway.
"Hi Wondergirl" Asuka began "We brought you these printouts." She said as she handed the leaves of cheaply printed tasks.
"Are you okay Ayanami?" Shinji asked when it became clear the First Child wasn't going to say thank you, hoping to get something out of her.
"I am functional." Rei gave a noncommittal answer that didn't help the perception she acted like a doll as the door hiss closed.
Asuka's reminisces were interrupted though by Rei's quiet voice coming over the comms:
"No, it's coming."
What followed was sheer pandemonium as every klaxon blared at once as the blood pattern ceased switching became fully blue and the MAGI confirmed the 16th Angel had arrived.
The rotating helix suddenly paused and the twisting bands of light seemed to merge together before separating and hurtling toward Unit-00, impacting the Eva's abdomen before Rei could react.
Rei gritted her teeth and grabbing the strand that had embedded itself in her, positioned it directly at the barrel of her sniper rifle and fired three point blank shots in rapid succession.
Each one of the tungsten alloy rounds ricocheted off the surprising tough hide of the 16th Angel with an audible ping before Unit-00's grip around its weapon failed and Rei's consciousness felt a presence bursting through her mental barriers, demanding that it be heard.
"Who is this?" Rei said as she felt a presence in her mind, manifesting as a version of herself standing almost waist deep in a pool of strange liquid.
"Don't you want to become one with me?"
"No I am me not you." Rei said in response to the 16th Angel, Armisael's question.
"But you shall it's too late."
Meanwhile in Central Dogma the mayhem had not subsided.
"More than five percent of Unit-00 has already undergone bio-fusion!" Lieutenant Ibuki yelled across Central Dogma as her work station was covered in blinking red lights that spoke of the danger Rei was in. Her Eva convulsing as tendrils of corruption spread out from the impact point.
"Commander, we need to launch!" Major Katsuragi said as she turned to look at the imposing figure of Gendo Ikari, has face still hidden behind glaring glasses and steepled hands as he responded:
"Send out Unit-02 as support."
"But sir, we should send out both our remain-"
"No arguments! I said launch Major!" Gendo cut off the Major's protest, his voice rising but his body never moving.
"Yes, sir." Misato ground out through grit teeth. "Asuka! Launch!"
"Unit-02, launching!" Asuka Langley Sohryu said as she felt the catapult lift her Eva up through the labyrinthine tunnels that connected Geofront and surface.
Asuka seeing how ineffective Rei's rifle had been on Armisael had opted to take the spear she had used in her first round with Israfel, thinking its long reach would prove useful in these battle conditions.
Unit-02 finally reached the surface, exiting from the lift and finding its footing quickly before Asuka let out a battle cry and charged in:
"Get off her!" Asuka screamed as she commanded her Eva forward, the other end of the gold strand bifurcating in two and seemingly readying itself to ward off this new intruder while it consumed Unit-00.
The two strands launched themselves at the red Eva, but Asuka was faster and sidestepped their attack, countering with a swipe of her own spear, the blade catching one of the strands, definitely cutting it by the sympathetic feeling of resistance in her hands.
Asuka heard Rei let out a scream, providing impetus for her to kill this Angel as fast as possible and save her comrade.
'Hold on Wondergirl' Asuka thought. But with her mind momentarily on Rei and not the fight in front of her Armisael used this chance to strike, one of its tendrils looping around her side and aiming directly for the four-eyed maw of Unit-02. A last minute warning from Shinji over comms saved her and she put up her left hand, palm out to stop it.
What followed was searing pain coursing through Asuka's entire body as Armisael penetrated her hand, through pain-teared eyes, she could just see a faint gold wisp on the back of her Unit's hand. She looked at her own hand in the cockpit and saw what she hoped were sympathetic veins of corruption spreading outward from the impact point on her plugsuit.
"Get OUT!" Asuka roared as rage, greater than any she had ever known, filled her. Her sync rate spiked as her Eva scraped together every bit of power it could draw from its S2 engine and funneled it into a burst of her AT field. The invading tendril was sent reeling as it was expelled from Unit-02.
"Oh no you don't!" Asuka said as she brought her foot down on the retreating band of light, holding the squirming thing down while both her hands plunged her spear down into it. Another scream came from Rei, the First Child letting out more wails as Asuka twisted the spear in the wound she had made before abruptly letting it go and activating her comms.
"Is this thing bonding with Rei!?" Asuka said, her mind managing to put two and two together. "Every time I hit it she cries out!"
"Given the state of bio-fusion and this Angel's capabilities its likely any damage inflicted on it is being psychosomatically felt by Pilot Ayanami!" Dr Akagi answered.
"How are we supposed to beat it then!" Asuka asked the faux blonde doctor as she parried another strike from the Angel's golden fronds.
"Try and get closer. Combining your AT field with Rei's might eject the Angel from Unit-00!" Major Katsuragi said, thinking quickly.
"Roger!" Asuka said as her Eva took a step forward, readying her body for a dash to where Unit-00 lay, back against a hill. The two golden tendrils of Armisael swaying like dancing cobra heads, ready to strike into the flesh of her Eva, ready to spread the rank corruption that defied its noble, golden appearance.
"Oh!? You do know anger."
Rei heard the voice as she managed to look at the closing red of Unit-02, trying to sprint towards her downed form, only to be stopped by a golden tendril coming behind and piercing the Eva's right shoulder before Asuka could focus her AT field to force it from her body and bash the intruder away with the end of her spear.
"She's… She's trying to save me?" Rei said to the empty entry plug as she watched Asuka fight her absolute hardest to get to her, the certainty of that coming from the latent connection between their souls from when Armisael had punctured the both of them. "Would I do the same?" She asked herself as she looked at her hands, covered in the twisting, swollen, corruption that was eating through her body and soul.
"AHH!"
Arimsael let out in her mind with what had to be excited glee before continuing:
"This is a new one. One you've never felt before."
Since the 16th Angel had begun fusing itself with Unit-00 it had been unleashing emotional torment upon the pilot. Forcing negative feelings of loneliness, despair, and pain among others into her mind. But what Rei felt now was different than all those others and came from within herself rather than from the outside. Armisael let out a sickening chuckle before it gave a name to what the First Child was feeling just as the first tear fell from her eyes:
"Guilt."
'This is bad.' Asuka thought as she looked at the writhing form of Unit-00, still hundreds of meters away. It was all she could do to hold her own against Armisael's attacks, let alone beat the wickedly fast golden tendrils away long enough to get to Rei.
"Bio-fusion approaching critical levels!" Maya said over the radio from Central Dogma to drive home the point that they were running out of time.
"I can't break through! I need support or Rei will die!" Asuka said as she side stepped another attack, getting another step closer to Unit-00 only to be forced back another two by the 16th Angel's renewed drive. The ankles of her red mech digging into asphalt and earth as the tendrils pushed against her AT field and spear shaft.
A hush fell over Central Dogma at the Second Child's pronouncement. All eyes turned to Gendo, though only he knew the wheels turning in his head. On the one hand he would be risking Unit-01, risking Yui. He had backups of the First, but those were empty shells, and still so much was unknown about metaphysical biology and the aspects of Ayanami's unique physiology. There was no telling what prolonged contamination might do to her soul, and more importantly her ability to perform his desired scenario. Not to mention that once this Angel was finished with Unit-00, it would turn its full attention to Unit-02 and likely absorb it as well, leaving only Unit-01 and his scenario in jeopardy no matter what. His decision made, the NERV Supreme Commander spoke:
"Sortie Unit-01."
"You hear that Asuka! Hold back until Unit-01 arrives, then both of you break through and get to Rei!"
"Understood!" Shinji and Asuka replied in unison to their commanding officer as the catapult system shot Shinji to the surface. There he immediately discarded his pallet rifle, it likely being useless against this angel, not to mention Rei would be in the line of fire for any stray or ricocheting shots, and he pulled out his progressive knife.
"You go left, I'll go right." Asuka said, no teasing or games this time, not with these stakes. The Evas lunged forward only to be stopped by the twin tendrils of Armisael colliding at full force into their AT fields, the orange octagons visibly cracking under the stress before the golden strands retreated, only to circle back around and try again from another angle. This time piercing Unit-01's AT Field with Shinji only narrowly dodging the strike as Asuka hit it away with the end of her spear. Three steps forward, two steps back. They were clawing their way forward, but it wasn't anywhere near fast enough.
Rei was curled in a ball in her entry plug, her plugsuit covered in the snaking corruption of Armisael as it tried to make her one with him, as if forcing a union would fill the aching loneliness of the Angel with no core. Her mind roiled in all the emotions that had been unleashed upon it as it contemplated her actions and own existence.
Still she managed to look up and see a purple and red behemoth battling, trying to inch closer to her.
"Ikari." Rei verbalized as she saw Shinji and Asuka moving in perfect sync, covering each other from the dangerous touch of Armisael, the two uniting their AT fields into one. She could see the energies of their souls blending perfectly to forcefully eject a tendril that had pierced Unit-01's shin.
"They aren't lonely don't you want to be like them?"
Rei grimaced as the voice returned, bringing new torments with it.
"No, you want to be one with them."
Rei managed to open her eyes just in time to see Unit-01 barely avoid being struck by another of Armisael's golden tentacles. Shinji batting the offending strand with the flat of his knife to try and avoid damage to his fellow pilot, while Rei only just now noticed the spear tip was missing from Asuka's weapon, stuck in a parking lot along with part of the shaft she had broken off.
"Well just wait a little longer and you shall."
"No." Rei said weakly as she gathered what strength she had and set her AT field to maximum while also reversing it, drawing the Angel fully into Unit-00, causing its cloned flesh to bulge and armor to shatter at the speed and scale of the contamination taking place. Her ears were filled with pleas and cries for clarity from Central Dogma, but only one voice stood out:
"Now's our chance!" She faintly heard over the radio as she shuffled around, using more her arms than her legs to try and reach the back of the entry plug's seat, and the final failsafe that lay there.
She released the safety latch, her hands tightening around firing handle ready to plunge it down. Her mind weakly thought she should say something as she stood on the edge of oblivion, but she just didn't have the strength.
But before she could shift her body wight to depress the firing stud, her arms were too weak now to do it on their own, she felt another presence, actually two other presences there with her. The feeling gave her a renewed sense of strength and releasing her grip on the self-destruct she unfurled her own AT field, purging Armisael's grip from her body as it was weakened by two other S2 powered AT fields at point blank range.
The golden, stringy, body of the 16th Angel flew across the valley as it was denied the union it so desperately wanted as the red and purple bodies of Units-01 and 02 put themselves between Rei's prone Eva and the enemy.
"We've got it from here Ayanami!" Rei heard Shinji over the radio as she saw the wrinkles on her plugsuit melt away now that the corrupting touch of the Angel had been broken.
"We need to find the core!" Asuka said as she scanned Armisael's form, oscillating with what seemed to be anger above a nearby hill.
"I don't see one!" Shinji said, the usually ubiquitous glowing red orb absent on this particular angel.
"Wait! They're a helix aren't they!?" Asuka said, her mind replaying the video feed she'd seen of their Eva's consuming Leliel's two S2 organs. She suppressed a shudder at the thought of their bloodied mechs' blocky teeth tearing into the helix-shaped tissues.
"Yeah?" Shinji said, his questioning tone telling the German redhead he didn't know where she was going with this.
"Don't you get it baka!? It's entire body is its core!" Asuka said, demonstrating why she was called a prodigy.
"Damn!" Shinji cursed in realization before asking the next obvious question "How do we kill it then!"
Asuka looked at the Angel, if it had been an animal, or even just had limbs she'd have said it was pacing back and forth, waiting to pounce. She adjusted her grip on her spear as an idea popped into her head:
"When I say run, go!"
Rather than ask a question Shinji merely nodded through their audio-visual channel and readied his grip on his progressive knife.
Finally, the twin tendrils of one of the halo's ends rushed towards the two Evas. One gold tendril whipped around the shaft of Asuka's spear, while the other around Shinji's blade. But, rather than deflecting them away or cutting into the Angel's body, they instead grabbed hold of each golden end, not letting it retreat while their AT fields held the corrupting influence at bay.
"Run!" Asuka screamed into the radio, her feet already moving.
Shinji understood the gist of her plan and went in the opposite direction. Their movements unfurling the structure of the Angel. Until it came down to the last connection at the end that had violated Unit-00. Both Asuka and Shinji were straining to keep going, they'd long since reached the edges of the valley and were now moving up mountains on either side.
As they neared the tops on either side, they each turned their Evas around and looked back.
"On three." Shinji said thinking quickly before counting up.
At the mark both pilots used what remained of their strength and jumped to the other side of their respective mountain, letting gravity do the rest.
The tension was too much for Armisael the 16th Angel and the last connection between its twin strands broke. The previously dazzling twists were no more as it died with a whimper and its body turned to ash that blew away in the wind, as if the Angel had never really been there.
Well almost, the twisted mutated form of Unit-00 remained as a testament to its existence.
Gendo's Esoteric Office: Later that week
"Pilot Sohryu." Gendo Ikari began, hands in their usual position as his eyes gleaned the nature of the contents of the folders before him. "You're here to lodge a formal complaint?"
"Sir." Asuka began as she stood at attention the prescribed twenty meters away from Gendo seated at his desk with the Vice Commander standing to his side. "Our tactics the last several engagements have been nothing short of disastrous. We keep sending our forces in piecemeal, resulting in unnecessary damage and needless casualties. These forms formally protest these tactics and propose Units-01 and 02 be designated as the Vanguard rather than Unit-00." Asuka said, stating the main idea contained in the documents.
The German redhead had submitted them through formal UN channels rather than the internal NERV ones. She'd even called in a favor or two from acquaintances back in Germany, including a former classmate who'd have flunked if not for her tutoring, who also just so happened to be the daughter of the current German Foreign Minister.
"I see." Gendo said as he perused the Latin letters before continuing: "But you've wasted your time."
"Now wait-!" Asuka began in protest before Vice Commander Fuyutsuki intervened to clarify:
"It's pointless, Pilot Sohryu, because Unit-00 is being scrapped."
"So you see, we are left with no option but to go with your proposal as Units-01 and 02 are the only ones left." Gendo added as he closed the manilla folders before returning his hands to their steepled position.
"But why? Our Evas were also-!" Asuka asked perplexedly.
"Your Evas were only minorly exposed and the contamination is negligible and easily repaired." Gendo's answer cut her off before the sensei added:
"Unit-00 however, was exposed continuously for the duration of the battle, and even after the Angel was ejected, the…" Fuyutsuki paused looking for the right word "…internals of the Eva, never properly reset and recovered."
"And let me guess, it's cheaper to scrap it and wait for a new one than it is to fix it."
"Correct, just like with the Fourth Child's intended unit. The First Child will join him on the Reserve Combat Roster." the Supreme Commander said as Asuka remembered the fight with the 13th Angel before more of Gendo's words broke her out of her reverie: "If there is nothing else Pilot Sohryu, you are dismissed."
Asuka grit her teeth, turned smartly and walked out of the kabbalah covered room.
"It may have helped if she had submitted it a month ago." Gendo began when the Second Child had left and tossed twelve hours' worth of paperwork in a desk drawer "Still it'll help us shift the blame of the loss of Unit-00 onto the old men and perhaps give us breathing room."
"Any room it might have given us was squandered when you released Rei from the hospital." The Vice Commander said in bitter tones.
"It was necessary."
"The old men aren't senile yet. They know any normal person should be dead, or contaminated beyond saving, but definitely not given a clean bill of health and released from the hospital in less than forty-eight hours!" The old sensei's voice raised at the end of his rant about what he felt was an action that jeopardized everything.
"We need to see how she responds to stimuli in order to determine if we need to activate the third." Gendo responded, his pose never shifting.
"The committee are still going to be suspicious." Fuyutsuki said after a long audible sigh.
"Perhaps, but for the moment they are rather preoccupied." Gendo said as a smile formed under his hands.
NERV Escalator: Some hours later
'That BASTARD!' Dr. Ritsuko Akagi fumed as she stood on the escalator, her hand subconsciously rubbing her arm as her skin still crawled from the stares and leers she knew were hiding behind the committee's red numbered monoliths.
She'd told him it was foolish to release Rei, better to just keep her in Terminal Dogma, there was only one Angel left anyway, they wouldn't need to hide her for long at all. But no he just had to have it his way, he couldn't bear to see his favorite doll all cooped up.
'Favorite?' Ritsuko thought at the word her rambling thoughts had used, oh sure she'd done everything Gendo had asked. Let him defile her in every way she knew. Her womanly body by never being the object of his touch but merely a pale substitute for what, no who, he really wanted. Her scientific skill by burning her ethics for the sake of his scenario, and her potential motherhood by never letting their trysts be anything more, never having that thing that ties you to someone forever, family.
Still for all of that, she knew she wasn't the favorite. She'd lost.
'No! he sacrificed me to protect his favorite little doll! I'm such a fool!' Ritsuko thought, tears in her eyes as her fist struck the escalator. But as she sobbed an idea entered her mind:
'Yes…If I've tainted myself so.' She thought as she looked down at hands she didn't recognize 'Then the best thing to do is corrupt that last bond you have with her, show him all your dark secrets.'
Her intellect, easily among the top five on the planet, already was working out the details as the escalator brought her to her destination. Working hastily to ensure no one would be watching she fished out her phone from her pocket and pressed call.
"Listen carefully, for the next few minutes you'll be free from the secret service. Come here now while you can." Ritsuko instructed as the person on the other end of the line picked up the phone before abruptly hanging up.
"Ritsuko?" Shinji said bewilderedly to the dead line before looking behind him and seeing the stern looking faces of Asuka and Misato sitting at the kitchen table. He'd put the call on speaker thinking Ritsuko had news about Rei or sync tests.
He sighed, before looking back at them.
"Right, let's go."
Terminal Dogma: Forty minutes later
"I wanted you to come alone." Ritsuko said annoyed as she looked at the pair of Eva pilots standing before her.
"Anything you want to show him, you can also show me," Asuka said her arms crossed in defiance as she added "We're a team."
"Fine." Ritsuko acquiesced as she led them down the dimly lit passages to the entrance behind which lay all that NERV never wanted to see the light of day, the ominous metal door covered in signs promising severe punishments to trespassers.
Ritsuko swiped her keycard, but instead of the expected green light and hissing of the doors, her eyes instead saw the hurtful red of rejection while her ears heard the distinct cocking of a pistol behind her followed by the telltale cold of a metal barrel creeping through her lab coat.
"Sorry, it won't work without my password." Misato Katsuragi, her old friend, said behind her while Asuka and Shinji grimaced. They hadn't wanted it to come to this, but hadn't seen another way when Misato explained the gift the ponytailed spy had left.
"I see, did Kaji arrange this?" Ritsuko answered cool and calmly, like one unafraid of death.
"Show them to us. All the secrets you've buried here." Misato said rather than answering the question, her face and tone remaining stern.
"Very well." Ritsuko said before stepping aside to let Misato use Kaji's latest gift. The doors now parted, and without logging that thye were opened or who had entered. The quartet went to an elevator that would take them to the deepest recesses of NERV. After a long, quiet ride the doors finally opened and Dr. Akagi led them along.
Asuka noticed the signs, helpfully written in English and not just Kanji.
'Artificial Evolution Laboratory, Annex 03?' Her mind thought as it read the sign. 'What does this mean?' She thought as they entered and were met with the sight of old rusting medical equipment and metal furniture, punctuated by bare concrete walls.
"This looks just like Rei's old apartment." Shinji said, giving voice to what they were all thinking.
"That's not surprising. This is the place Rei was born."
"She was what?" Shinji and Misato said in unison, shocked by what they heard.
"Born here? Is she a test tube baby or something?" Asuka asked a moment later. Her mind putting together the name of the place they were in and the revelation that Rei came from it.
"In a sense, the visions of light and water that flow through her consciousness are reflections of this place." Ritsuko said, being rather more psychological than giving a clear answer.
"This isn't what I came to see." Misato said after a moment, digesting the reason why the First Child had no family to speak of and no records that weren't clearly fabricated.
"I know that, Misato." Ritsuko responded curtly, the venom she laced in her voice as she said the purple-head's name belied their earlier friendship.
They moved out of the depressing concrete box and made their way onto a barely lit walkway until Ritsuko found the power lever. Flipping it up and closing the circuit she not just revealed their path but also a vast cavern. A vast cavern filled with bodies.
"Is that an Eva?" Shinji asked as he looked at the sight before them. Several, possible dozens of enormous skeletons, interwoven with mechanical parts, lay strewn about as far as the eye could see.
"The first" Dr. Akagi began leaning casually against the gantry, seemingly unbothered by the gigantic remains before she continued, "a failure, we abandoned it ten years ago."
"A graveyard for Evas." Shinji rued at the scene. While Asuka's hands gripped the scaffold until her knuckles were white before asking:
"Just what are Evas anyway!?" The German redhead asked with her trademarked temper as she looked at the faux-blonde doctor demanding an explanation.
Ritsuko looked up to the still obscure ceiling of the cavern, eyes lost in the dark void as she answered.
"Fifteen years ago Mankind found a god, and in his hubris tried to make it his own and was punished for such arrogance…" Dr. Akagi answered, she'd wanted to wait more before making such a revelation but…
"The Second Impact…" Asuka nodded in understanding, remembering their old sensei's lectures on that time.
"But Mankind couldn't let the god, and its power go, so from that god, Adam…"
"The white giant." Asuka said, remembering the being she had seen every time she had closed her eyes for a week after the battle with Arael.
"Correct, the bodies of the Evangelions are made from the Angels, our own enemy." Ritsuko answered, though not entirely accurately, but she doubted even Asuka would understand the differences between Adam and Lilith.
"So…they are… cloned flesh wrapped in armor." Shinji said haltingly, trying to make sense of what he had heard.
"But if they're flesh and blood why do they need electricity to move, well most of the time." Misato asked, wanting to figure out the truth of Mankind's ultimate weapon. The public had never really been told what Evas were, to them they were just giant robotic mechs. Misato had known that wasn't true though, metal doesn't bleed.
"You know how if you put an electric current through a fish, even a recently dead one, it will cause it to move as the electricity makes its muscles to contract and relax?" Ritsuko began after a moments pause to think of a suitable example. "That is essentially, though only on a much larger scale, how an Eva functions when it has a pilot. Albeit with more finesse thanks to the entry plug and its onboard computers." The Doctor said, a small smirk of pride managing to find its way on her face as she talked, "In essence the pilot thinks where or how they want to move, these thoughts synchronize with the Eva's systems, which then relays instructions to the body. The supercomputer then directs the current to the associated muscles from its scans of the Eva's core."
"Like a puppet." Shinji said, processing the explanation.
"Or a doll." Asuka added in bitter tones.
"Hence the higher the sync-rate the faster the reaction times, since it reduces delay between the pilot's thoughts and the sympathetic response from the Eva. That's why armor covers the entire body." Misato said. 'And is ridiculously expensive.' Her mind added. She shook her head, trying to get work out of her thoughts to focus on the truth before her.
"What about the AT Field then?" Asuka asked. While she understood how the Eva moved she didn't understand how electricity made a nigh impenetrable barrier.
"The battery may move the muscles but the core is what makes the AT Field." Ritsuko said.
"How does it do that?" Shinji asked the faux blonde.
"Do you ever wonder how the pilot of an Eva Unit is chosen?" Dr. Akagi said, answering their question with one of her own. When it became obvious none of them were forthcoming with an answer, not even Asuka Langley Sohryu, the one most proud of being a pilot, Ritsuko continued:
"We didn't want to use children." The doctor paused for a moment before heading over to the handrail, resting her arms against it and staring down at years of failure, "Originally the chosen pilots were brilliant, trusted scientists who understood how it all worked. But when they tried to activate the Evas they were sucked into the core." Ritsuko looked back at them her eyes boring into the brown-haired boy. "You should remember that Shinji."
"Doctor!" Misato warned her arm raising up her pistol, though her warning didn't do much to dissuade her old college friend from continuing.
"I mean you were there when we found out the hard way it needed a soul. The core was initially only supposed to be a relay." Ritsuko continued her dark eyes locked with Shinji's cobalt orbs before shifting to Asuka's cerulean, "so we tried again, but the mitigation measures we put in place only partly worked with Kyoko."
"Our mothers' souls are in the core…" Asuka said as the pieces all fell in place in her mind as the head of Project E continued:
"After the failed contact experiments we fully learned that Evas needed a soul in the core to function. And that they needed a strong bond, like mother to child with the pilot, to even activate an Eva, much less synchronize with it. Sure we did try using trained Special Forces with living mothers to be the pilots, but for reasons we don't fully understand only people born after Second Impact can successfully synchronize with an Eva." Ritsuko said as she turned her back on them again before turning around to deliver the last line. "So really there's nothing special about the pilots, any child will do, and you and your classmates are the oldest cadre we can pull from."
"Is that how an Eva moves on its own then?" Asuka asked, her tone becoming harsh, almost shrill as she asked her question. "Is that why we can feel their presence when we're in the Eva?"
"You can feel them?!" It was the good doctor's turn to be surprised, she regained her composure though quickly before answering.
"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, as I said every Eva requires a human soul in its core to function, most often the pilot's mother, as only a soul can create an AT field. The fact that you made contact is likely a symptom of that bond." Ritsuko said, confirming their worst fears before adding "As for moving on its own. That as far as we can tell is when the soul inside the Eva takes direct control. If only there was more time to study it."
"It doesn't need power for that?" Misato asked in a surprised tone.
"Do you need to plug into a wall when you want to move your arm?" Ritsuko said flippantly before admitting: "Perhaps the soul itself is the power source. Metaphysical Biology is still a new field. Evas don't really need a pilot for anything, they can activate and move on their own," Ristsuko paused for a moment, the memory of Unit-01 activating to shield Shinji from falling debris during the 3rd Angel's attack replaying in her mind before she continued, "But that happens so rarely it cannot be relied upon. Which is why we need pilots, to keep these demi-gods in line and make it more predictable what they will do since we can't communicate with the soul in the core. Much less get it out." Ritsuko added at the end, cutting off the next question she knew the pilots would have.
The three roommates stood in muted horror at the revelations they had heard. It all made such perfect sense given what they had experienced, their worst fears made-
Suddenly the two women turned at once as they heard a body crash down on the gantry. Shinji had lost his footing and was just sitting, shaking on the scaffold.
"Shinji!" Both Asuka and Misato let out in unison as they rushed to his side.
"Shinji what's wrong?!" Asuka asked, her hands on either of Shinji's cheeks as she forced him to look at her, trying to get him to calm down as tears began to flow.
"Toji…I…killed Toji's mother!" Shinji got out through the sobs.
The words causing the end of their battle against the 13th Angel to flash before the redhead's eyes again as she saw Unit-01, Shinji, stabbing into the core of Unit-03, which if Ritsuko was telling the truth had housed the soul of the late Mrs. Suzuhara.
"You're lying!" Asuka screamed at Dr. Akagi as she cradled Shinji in her arms, "What about Rei then!? How's she able to pilot?!" Asuka asked, grasping at straws.
"Come with me. There's one last secret to show you." Ritsuko said after a long silence. The Major and lover managing to get Shinji on his feet, standing on either side to support him. Ritsuko silently cursing as she saw how they were moving together, and sour look on her face.
They made their way to another room, dark like all the others though Asuka could make out complicated-looking equipment and lettering she knew to be DNA sequences on the walls.
"So this is the core of the dummy plug?" Misato asked as she looked at the complex piping and machinery.
"This is where we produce the components." Ritsuko said, clarifying as she pressed a button on a nearby controller, bringing light to the truth.
"Oh my God it's Rei!" Shinji said, his tongue finding words again as his eyes beheld a new horror. Dozens of naked bodies, floating in what looked to be LCL, all with the face of Rei Ayanami. All smiling a wicked smile as their heads turned to look at the source of the noise, responding to outside stimuli and unnerving the three newcomers.
"They're all Rei you mean the dummy plugs are-!?" Misato began before Ritsuko cut her off.
"Aha, these are the core of the dummy plugs, they're what makes the system work."
"So when I crushed the dummy plug," Asuka said, her voice quiet as her mind replayed the image of her Unit-02 crushing the dummy plug that had been in Bardiel "I crushed…"
"An empty vessel. Nothing but spare parts really, a spare Rei if you will." Ritsuko answered for her, her tone a little too giddy for such morbidity. Her tone shifted though, anger filling every word of what she said next, "Empty husks that have no right to live!"
Ritsuko Akagi pressed another button on the controller in her hand and the smiling bodies in the LCL began to break apart, limbs, faces, bones, and organs floating around in that primordial soup while it seemed the Reis were laughing as they met oblivion.
Misato's face was glued to the scene until she heard Ritsuko again:
"Hey!" The doctor protested. Shinji had jumped forward, forced out of his malaise by the sight and grabbed Ritsuko's arms while Asuka pried the controller from her fingers.
"I can't stop it!" Asuka screamed in desperation as she pressed every button on the controller Ritsuko had used. Shinji let go of the doctor's arms, the faux blonde crumpling to her knees, her face staring at the floor, and went over to try and help Asuka while Misato stepped up to directly in front of her former friend.
"Stop this! Stop this now!" Misato said, the barrel of her pistol parting the faux blond hair as it rested directly on her head.
"It's impossible it's done already. I've been such a fool, everything I did, and still I lost." Ritsuko said clearly holding back sobs before she lifted her face up so the gun barrel was now pointing directly at her temple and she was looking directly into Misato's brown eyes: "If you're going to shoot me then go ahead, I'd welcome death!"
The Second and Third Child let out more frantic screams as they tried everything. Asuka tossing the useless gadget to the side and instead trying to hit against the glass with Shinji, but it was useless. Soon the bodies had degenerated to the point where only a slurry of amino acids remained, a last red eye dissolving in front of them as Asuka flung herself into Shinji's arms not wanting to look at it anymore and both teenagers began crying in each other's embrace.
Misato held the gun there for a long moment, her eyes not breaking with Ritsuko's, until finally she lowered the weapon and turned away from the doctor's piercing green eyes.
"If that's what you want, then you really are a fool."
A/N: Well here we are. This one took a lot longer than the others because this episode in Evangelion is, to put it mildly, dense. Lots of revelations, important things and the like. I really hope it doesn't have too bad tonal whiplash, but with this episode, hell all the episodes in the final arc that's going to be tough to avoid.
It also seemed like the perfect opportunity to put in an explanation of how I think Eva's work that makes logical sense and also my theory that Yui and Kyoko were the intended original pilots, since none of that is ever directly stated and is made more by inference.
Next chapter everyone's favorite grey-haired boy will be making an appearance. Likewise I think it will also have delays since these last chapters need to be done right.
As always let me know what you think.