On the rear lines of the command post set up and occupied by the 67th Dantran Rifles, a cell was constructed. Made of reinforced plastcrete and layered with ceramite, it was a bunker turned inwards, designed to contain rather than protect. Carefully carved psychometric wards and heavy bars over the door showed that whatever it contained could be a danger to all.

The Emperor's Most Holy Inquisition took no chances.

The matter concerning Lieutenant Shinji Ikari would soon be resolved.

One way, or another.


Shinji slowly returned to consciousness like waking from a deep sleep. He tried to sit up, to move, but the bindings securing him were too strong. He struggled briefly, then rested his head on the cold metal slab and gazed upwards.

"Another unfamiliar ceiling," he murmured.

As if on cue, the door opened with a hefty ca-chunk, spilling light into the dim room. A figure was silhouetted against the passageway outside.

"Who are you?" it said. The voice had a distinctively feminine note.

"I'm Shinji," the human being known as Shinji said.

"Full name, rank and ident numeral." The figure stepped into the room, and as Shinji's eyes adjusted, he could see that it was Inquisitor Katsuragi.

"L-Lieutenant Shinji I-Ikari, 67th Dantran R-Rifles, Ident numeral 19873269420." Or was it 19873629420? "Wh-What's happening?"

"You don't have the right to know. Report on the battle." Misato was cold, uncaring.

"The orks came out of the forest. We killed them, with our artillery, tanks, and rifles. Then the diggas came out of the ground and broke our lines. I was attacked. Mari roasted them with the flamer, but," his voice hitched in his throat, "she was killed by some sort of sorcery." He squeezed his eyes shut to avoid bursting into tears.

"And then?" Katsuragi pressed, still formally neutral.

"And then…" Shinji trailed off. He tried to grasp at his memories of the preceding events, but they eluded him, as if they had never existed. "I don't know," he finished lamely.

Misato strode forward and leaned over him, looking him directly in the eye. "tell the truth. It will go better for you if you do."

"I don't know!"

"So, it has come to this." She placed her index and middle fingers on Shinji's temples. "This will hurt a lot less if you don't resist."

Shinji began to talk, but his voice degenerated into a sound between a shriek and a gurgle as something forced its way inside of his head.


It is said that no human can ever see anything from the exact perspective of another. It is said that humans live their lives unable to fully connect with one another.
This is a lie. At least to some extent.
A trained, powerful telepath can force their way into someone else's mind, and see their memories, their thoughts, their feelings.
But does the act of observing change the observed? Does the viewing of the memories change them? Is what the psyker sees truly a reflection of someone?


Misato, herself a trained, telepathic psyker, entered Shinji's memories.

How a psyker visualised the mind was different in each of them. Some saw it as an abstract form, a cloudly abyss filled with formless shapes. Others visualised it as something more literal, a fortress or another building. Misato Katsuragi saw the mind as a stormy ocean, overlooked by a giant creature of pure light representing the soul.

Shinji's mind had a low wind and moderate waves, a calm sea with little resistance. She mentally propelled herself over the sea, searching for a coral reef bursting with the pearls of recent memory. She found one easily, honed with years of practice as an interrogator.

She closed her eyes and concentrated.

She could see the events though his eyes, touch what he had touched, hurt as he had hurt.

She felt the dirt sloughing off the digga as if it was her own skin.

She felt his heart hammer in her chest.

She felt the backwash of the flamer.

She saw one guardswoman that Shinji knew as Mari die, afflicted by Da Krunch. Misato offered a prayer to the Emperor, and was glad for his mercy. There were much worse ways to die in this galaxy.

She saw the weirdboy turn to Shinji, saw it close it's fist.

She felt the crushing sensation around her chest.

Then nothing.

It wasn't as if the memory had gone. There were the tell-tale signs that the memory existed, but none were available. The experience cut off smoothly, as if he had fallen asleep.

She cast aside the pearl of his memory and returned to the surface. She mentally scanned for any hint of corruption, what she suspected was behind his actions.

Daemonic corruption.

There were no blemishes in the sand, no stagnant, polluted waters, no other minds within his.

Until.

Misato felt something, a mind different from the one she was expecting. She grasped for it, but it flitted away. The fleeting contact she had confirmed that, without a doubt, it was no daemon possessing him.


Misato reeled back and staggered to the door. She rapped her knuckles on it once, twice, cracking through the psychic frost left by the side effects of her probing. Breathing hard, she picked up a can of amasec and took a long draught.

"Lieutenant Ikari," she said to no-one in particular, "has two souls."


"Inquisitor Katsuragi? You wanted to see me?"

"Ah, yes, Captain-Commissar. Come in. Close the door behind you."

Asuka stepped through the door and hit a rune on the control panel beside her. The door closed with a soft hiss-click.

"Now- Are you alright, Misato? You look pale." Asuka squinted at her superior.

"I'm fine, Asuka. To business, then?" Misato said, wiping her hand across her forehead and down her face.

"Sure."

"Any progress mustering for your scouting mission?"

Asuka frowned. "How do you know about that?"

"Inquisitor. Plus, I regularly check for any planned missions, and have informers in the camp."

Asuka stood in half-stunned silence.

"Great to see that you understand. I have a few requests to make."

"…Fine, lets hear them," Asuka said, pinching the bridge of your nose. "Still can't believe you were spying on me."

"I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear that last part. First request, I'll need to come, along with my entourage."

"A psyker or two could be useful, if you can behave yourselves. Not that I need any help."

"Second. A force from the Adeptus Mechanicus will be required. I believe Magi Ammadron and Akagi should do."

"Toasterman and The Doctor? Sure. If they don't clank the entire time, they can come." Asuka paused. "Is that all?"

Misato smiled. "I'm going to enjoy this," she muttered.

"What was that?" Asuka said.

"Third: Lieutenant Shinji Ikari must accompany us."

"WhaaaAAAAT?!"

"You heard me."

"But why? The Idiot knows nothing about stealth, or scouting, or watching out for other people! He'll just slow us down and get us killed. Or worse, get in my way." Asuka took a deep breath to continue her rant, but Misato silenced her.

"Because I said so. That's why. If you comply, I'll get into contact with the fleet and requisition a Valkyrie to pull us out if things go A-over-T," Misato said.

This made Asuka stop to think. "Can we get Skyfox piloting?" she asked after a second.

"Your wish is my command, Princess," Misato said, needling away. If looks could kill, the returning glare Misato received would have been classified as an Exterminatus-grade weapon.

"Sure, Asuka. I'll notify the Victoria Mortis immediately."

"So it's just you, the xenos, the magi, and the idiot?"

Misato nodded. "Thank you, Asuka."

Asuka touched her forehead in a casual salute before turning to walk out the door. Misato was already busy retrieving her bolt pistol and force sword, both of them relics of ancient design. If she had watched the commissar leave the room, she would have seen that Asuka had slightly more of a spring in her step than what she had coming in.


They went forward, under the cover of night. They left the Angelus Mortuus behind; the superheavy tank would make too much noise and attract way too much attention. Instead, the scouts went by foot into the forest.

Shinji, bought with them unprepared on short notice, felt like a clumsy lout in comparison to the veterans. They seemed to glide through the undergrowth, disturbing nothing. Shinji felt like he was stepping on every twig and rustling every fern in a fifty-metre radius. Still, he didn't really need to worry. Even at night, the forest was alive with noise. Insects and animals buzzed, rustled, and howled, covering up most other noises. The bright moonlight filtered through the trees, dancing in dappled patters as sporadic clouds flitted by. Every moment was hell on Shinji's paranoid, hyper-alert senses. Was that rustle an ork lifting a shoota? Was the flicker a kommando's shadow as he stalked through the trees?

Many times, the group was forced to hide as ork war bikes and buggies roared past. It was impossible to tell if they were patrolling, or just driving for their own savage enjoyment. Once, in a desperate display of power, Inquisitor Katsuragi allowed the Farseer, Rei, to redirect the minds of a group of orks, altering their thoughts and moving them to a path that would not intercept their own. A stiff breeze blew through the area, accompanied by a drop in temperature, as they did so, unnatural against an otherwise warm, still night.

"Idiot! Stop!" Asuka hissed. Shinji froze. Asuka pointed at something on the ground in front of him. Shinji looked downwards, and immediately saw the gossamer-thin wire that was stretched between two trees. His shin had brushed it, not enough to break it, but it was bent ominously.

"Fish. Go check where that leads," Asuka said.

A guardsman with bionic legs waded into the bushes and came out holding a cluster of crude grenades, each the size of a grapefruit, still attached to the now-slack cord.

"Stikkbommz," he said with a note of satisfaction. "My guess is that there's another bunch on the other side." He handed the grenades to Shinji. "Good work seeing the trap, commissar."

"Oh, I didn't find it. Shinji here did." Shinji's head perked up, glad to hear someone use his name rather than 'Idiot'.

"His leg did, anyway," Asuka continued, smirking. Shinji's head dropped again. Many guardsmen laughed quietly.

They kept moving.


The sun rose on the forest. It appeared slowly, lighting up the valley sides and sending orange creeping across the sky, infecting the clouds with colour. The ruby tint of dawn flitted through the tree branches, lighting up the ground in warm radiance so different from the cold moonlight. Birdsong echoed around the valley, a mix of chirps, tweets and a long, gurgling laugh.

Shinji yawned as he trudged along, hunched over his replacement lasgun. The rest of the expedition had differing reactions. The other guardsmen were obviously tired, but ignored it, panning their weapons in smooth arcs. The eldar were still fresh, alien metabolisms requiring much less sleep. Misato was drinking something that was probably caffeinated, and definitely alcoholic, with obvious enjoyment. The techpriests, on the other hand…

The one variously known as 'Magos Ammadron' and 'Toasterman' could well be sleeping, his multifaceted, unblinking ocular implants switched off while a subroutine ran locomotion. Magos Akagi, or The Doctor, was different. She was mostly unaugmented except for her mechadendrites. She was still awake too, and smoking a lho-stick. Shinji briefly wondered why.

+++Deathbringer here. I've found an anomalous structure ahead. It doesn't appear on any maps or orbital scans. My auspex is reading twelve unidentified signatures. And given the, uh… oh shit+++ The vox rang with the crackle of lasgun fire, made tinny by the transmission. A second or so later, the actual shots echoed back.

+++Well, I was going to say something about the detritus, but that gives confirmation. The remaining eleven signatures should be classified as orkoid. Standing by for orders. +++

Asuka tapped the vox-bead in her ear. +++Hold, Deathbringer. Wait for us to arrive. Despite your arrogance, I don't want to find another scout sergeant. +++

+++You sure, captain-commissar? +++

+++YOU HOLD THAT POSITION- +++

+++ Message received, captain-commissar. Holding position. +++

Asuka began walking again and gestured for everyone else to follow. "Pick up the pace."


The term 'anomalous structure' didn't do it any justice whatsoever. It was a huge stone building, set in the middle of an even larger clearing, made of a deep red granite shot through with filaments of gold. It sloped gently into the ground at one end, suggesting an underground passage of some sort. It was also chipped and covered in cracks and vines; the corpse of an edifice long abandoned.

But what a beautiful corpse.

"Fan out," said Asuka coolly "and sweep the area for hostiles."

Shinji pulled his lasgun up and moved around the building. He suddenly stumbled, his outflung hands scraping against the wall. When he looked up, he noticed something carved in the rock.

"Commissar? I've found something!" he called.

Asuka walked around to his position and glanced at the wall.

"Idiot. I said sweep the area for hostiles." She looked at the runes again. "This is interesting though. Inquisitor!"

Misato was already behind them. "Never seen anything like it. No idea. Ammadron!"

The technomagos snapped back to life, mechadendrites returning to their eerily organic movements.

"Hurry up, Toasterman! We don't have all day here!" said Asuka

Toasterman clicked up to them with his segmented, arachnoid legs and examined the wall.

"Kantharite runes." His voice seemed to emanate from the centre of his chest and was underlaid by a series of clicks and beeps. "Origin unknown. Do you request translation?"

Misato nodded.

"The message is worn away at the beginning," Toasterman continued, "but what is left resembles a prophecy. Kanthar language is highly context dependant, so the wording may be unclear. Message reads: …shall fall, and he/she/it/they shall rise, and he/she/it/they shall slay that/who/those who have… message is damaged here, but it appears to say… betrayed them/defiled their home/destroyed their lives."

Misato glanced warily at Rei. "How old is this building?"

"Tentative estimates place it at ten thousand years old, with a margin of error of eight percent."

"From the time of the Emperor…" Misato said, full of awe. "So-"

+++Contacts!+++ someone yelled into the vox from the other side of the building. The crack of lasgun fire and the deep thwoop-hiss of a plasma gun echoed around the clearing, followed by a throaty roar from some beast, and a devastating explosion.

+++Oh frak, they've got bomb squigs! Target the explosives!+++

+++They're coming from nowhere! I swear one just demolished the wall!+++

Asuka grabbed Shinji's arm. "Come on, Idiot! We've got orks to kill!"

She ran off, dragging the unfortunate lieutenant Ikari behind her. As she ran, she raised a link on the vox-net. +++All units engage! For the Emperor!+++

+++Commissar, this is Commander Chad. Engaging with the hostiles now.+++

+++Deathbringer reporting. Do you request supporting fire?+++

+++Emperor's Teeth, Deathbringer! Fire at frakking will! I said 'all units, engage', you groxwipe!+++

As Asuka and Shinji rounded the corner, there was the sharp retort of a sniper rifle. An ork slumped to the ground at their feet, head a ruined crater. The vox-channel opened again, oozing smugness.

+++One shot, one kill. You're welcome, princess.+++

Asuka made a very rude and possible heretical gesture in the scout-sergeant before turning to Shinji.

"This is your first engagement under my command, so I'll let you watch this time. Maybe you'll get a few pointers afterwards," Asuka said. With those words, she took off at a run, pulling the halberd off her back as she went.

Her first kill she impaled as part of her headlong charge, the disruptor field pulsing as it annihilated the ork's chest cavity. She stunned a second as she pulled the weapon back, the counterweight hitting it directly between the eyes. She disemboweled it with a smooth swing that also decapitated a third ork with the follow through.

Asuka strode forward, firing the whining plasma guns, supercharged ions igniting and melting orks. She finished by pushing off in a leap that ended with her swinging a downstroke that split a heavily armoured ork from head to groin.

Shinji watched wide-eyed at the expertise displayed by his captain-commissar. Even as he watched, bullets seemed to curve impossibly around her, not even touching her skin.

Then another roar echoed out from the fresh entrance to the building.

The beast that emerged was disappointing, almost. It looked like a mutated cross between a rotund canid and a puffball. It was, however, crossed with ignition fuses tying demolition charges to its orange-pink body. When it turned to face him, Shinji saw a primed stikkbom clutched between long, razor-sharp teeth. It lumbered toward him on two stumpy legs, followed by a fresh wave of orks numbering dozens.

Shinji fired wildly. His first shot struck the wall and caused a blackened mark. The second missed entirely and flew into the forest.

He exhaled to focus. He bought the stock of the lasgun to his eye level, looking along the sights.

Centre on the target and pull the trigger.

Centre.

On.

Target.

And.

Pull.

Trigger.

The las round flew, straight and true, into the stikkbom. The grenade exploded, causing a chain reaction that also detonated the remaining charges. The shockwave ran through the group of orks, blowing gibbets of orkoid meat into the air.

Then there was silence, apart from the sizzling of cooked flesh and the pitter-patter of falling meat.

+++Holy Frakking Emperor, Lieutenant. What did you do?+++

Shinji cast his eyes downward.

+++I shot a squig.+++

More silence. The rain of ork pieces had stopped.

++Sorry.+++ he voxed.

Laughter overtook the elites of the 67th Dantran. Someone slapped Shinji on the back. Trooper John 'Sheriff' Stone, as he introduced himself, offered him a flask of water. Captain-Commissar Soryu deactivated her halberd and scowled. Inquisitor Katsuragi took a drink of something that was definitely not water, and smiled. Rei and Kaworu looked on, wondering.

Whether he liked it or not, Lieutenant Ikari was moving upward in the universe.


They took a break after the engagement. Five minutes only. The sun rose high over the horizon as the air came alive with the promise of heat and the half-smell of a very hot day. It was almost a relief to enter the cool darkness of the archeo-structure. If only it wasn't crawling with greenskinned brutes.

The building had no doors. The only entrance was through the jagged hole the orks had blasted. How whoever had built it had entered, there was no sign. The hole led to a small, dark and ruined room. Whether the detritus came from the natural effects of time or the occupation by orks was still unclear.

"Stablights on. Package formation, centred on our important guests." Soryu said.

Twisted, winding tunnels led ever downwards. At every turn, at every moment, Shinji fully expected orks to jump out at them, for gretchen to scurry out from a side tunnel, for a tripwire to trigger and send the whole thing crashing down on their heads.

But they saw no orks, set off no traps, and the closest thing to a grot was a dry, green splat in a corner, with a raggedy piece of cloth lying in the middle.

Eventually, after what the chronometer said was half an hour, but felt a lot longer, the worked slabs of stone making the walls gave way to what was essentially a hole carved in the bedrock. Distant percussive booms echoed through the rock around them. There was light, a faint and flickering light, at the end of the tunnel.

It led to a huge cavern, the size of a small city. Indeed, a small city was built in the cave; ancient, crumbling, beautiful.

And covered in orks.

They stood around a huge bonfire, fighting, drinking, fighting. They raced each other in large circuits around and through the city. They built, they fought, they destroyed. And there were thousands of them.

"Oh." Said Misato. "Emperor's Teeth. What have we gotten ourselves into?"


A/N:

Thanks to HydrationStation for beta reading this chapter.

The next couple of chapters are going to be a bit slow forthcoming for two reasons. One, because I don't really know where I'm going with this. Sure, I have an ending planned (and if you figured some of it out from the first chapter and this one, congratulations), but to be honest, I didn't expect to get this far.

The second reason is because I have somehow found myself in the middle of a plan to re-write Evangelion's ANIMA. There's going to be a whole host of writers, much better than I, also working on this project. It's early days yet, but we've got some concrete stuff down that I think will be enjoyable. Stay tuned.

Otherwise, thanks for reading my shitty little fanfic, and please review. Hope you enjoyed it.


Terminology:

Daemon: A demon from the Warp (space hell). Yes they exist.

Valkyrie: A transport flier/gunship of the Imperial navy. Not an interceptor or fighter, but it can serve those roles.

Auspex: A passive and active scanning device. Detects a whole host of things.

Squig: Ugly little bastards. Trained by orks as kind of attack dogs. You'll need a picture, no descriptions can do it justice

Wow that's it? Cool.