TRUE WAR
CHAPTER 26
BY WONGA316
COPYRIGHT
AND DISCLAIMER
I don't
own Neon Genesis Evangelion or any of its characters. If you want to
use any ideas in the fiction just drop me an email
PROOF READER
TheWickerMan
DATE
POSTED
20060525 - First posted
20060526 - Corrected Lorenz name and Kaworu as seventeenth Angel
EMAIL
Wonga316(at)yahoo(dot)com(au)
CHAT
MSN -
wonga316(at)hotmail(dot)com
YAHOO –
wonga316(at)yahoo(dot)com(dot)au
AIM –
wonga316
AUTHOR'S
NOTES
This is my
first attempt at a Neon Genesis fan fiction, so please be gentle.
This scenario doesn't take into account the final two movies /
episodes and Touji never lost his limbs during this activation test.
Some of the guys may seem OOC to the die-hard fans. Sorry about this,
but I hope my ideas will make it worthwhile.
"…" Normal speech
'…' Thoughts
(…) Computer / phone / other chat (you will know what I mean…)
NERV HEADQUARTERS – CAR PARK
For whatever reason, the pain and agony coursing through Shinji's body began to slowly subside. All his senses dull. He had felt this sensation once before while trapped in the Sea of Dirac of the Twelfth Angel.
'I'm dying… I'm sorry… everyone…' A feeling beyond the most painfully sadness and misery washed over Shinji. It was so strong that he couldn't explain or barely comprehend it. The last thing his fading eyes saw was the glowing embryo coming towards his chest.
"That's enough of that…" An AT field had come between Shinji and Adam.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Gendo saw the hexagon ripples bounce off the shield as he tried to push Adam into his son again and again. The gap between the two was only millimetres. Ikari couldn't believe what was happening. His goal was more than within grasp.
"I thought it was obvious what I was doing." Kaworu amused.
"WE HAD AN AGREEMENT!" Gendo was livid that it looked like Kaworu was betraying him at this crucial juncture of his scenario.
"Did you really think we had an agreement? I never agreed to anything. You just assumed we had an agreement." Tabris walked towards the shocked man. "You are boring me now."
Kaworu sliced the air in front of him with a backhand. A rush of air followed it and then nothing. There was a delay when Gendo's hand holding the first Angel was severed cleanly from about the middle of the forearm. An arterial spray of blood spurted into the air. His cut hand still tightly gripped onto Adam and awkwardly rolled towards Kaworu's feet.
"So weak…" Tabris muttered under his breathe as he brought his foot up and dropped it onto the hand and Adam. A bloody pulp flesh and bone was all the remained. Kaworu continued walking towards Gendo after disposing of his hand and Adam. He left a single gory bloody footprint with each step.
"THIS ISN'T HAPPENING! NO! THIS ISN'T HAPPENING!" Gendo had thrown Shinji to the ground after loosing his hand. He was breathing heavily and sweat poured from his face. He nursed his stump and continued to shout words of disbelief. Kaworu leaned over and whisper something in his ear.
"Let me tell you secret… You are only human..." before Gendo could even contemplate the words meaning to Kaworu's words another rush of air flew pass him. He tried to say something but couldn't. Gendo only managed an imbrued gurgle and it was followed by the taste of his own blood in the back of his throat. He coughed and sputtered his red vital fluid from his sliced throat. Some of his blood landed on Shinji who was still unconscious.
The former Commander collapsed to the ground. In some sort of strange poetic justice, the last thing he saw was his blood running down Shinji's face.
"I've held my end of the agreement… Chairman Keel…" Kaworu stood and turned his head towards the man.
"You never mentioned anything about Adam! And what did you inject Shinji with!" The chairman was furious. When Kaworu approached him at the site of the N2 mines hijacking, the angel had outlined his plan to betray his human partner. He knew in the back of his mind that Tabris would leave a few details out of the plan but didn't expect this to occur.
"What did you do to him!" Kaworu had let his guard down for a moment while disposing of Gendo and arguing with Keel. Kaji used this opportunity to sneak up behind him and press the tip of his pistol to the back of his head.
"Relax Mr. Section Two..." He sneered unconcerned by the fact that he now had a gun pointed point blank at his skull. "Your precious pilot should be waking soon."
Just as Kawrou spoke Shinji began to stir.
'What happen?' The young man thought as he groggily tried to lift his head. The last thing he remembers was walking to the car park with his mother, Rei and Asuka. How he ended up on the ground was a completed mystery to him. His face was lying in something wet and sticky which was bothering and uncomfortable.
Two men broken from the perimeter to grab Shinji but they were abruptly stopped by an invisible AT field. Their groans as they hit the ground snapped Shinji to attention and he realised that he wasn't alone.
"Shinji!" Kaji call out while still pointing the gun at Kaworu. He wanted the young man to look and face him. Kaji knew that if Shinji was to see his father's bloody corpse beside him it could have profound physiological impact on him. "Look at me! Face this way!"
Shinji turned his head looked straight into Kaworu's crimson eyes. Waking up and seeing an Angel wasn't much better than waking to the body of your dead father.
"Kaworu!" Shinji almost snarled which took everyone including Kaworu by surprise. They were all expecting a more fearful response. "What are you doing here! Where's my mother and the others"
"Well you see…" Before he could continue Kaji shoved the tip of his head into the back of Kaworu's head causing him to stop.
"Shut up!" He ordered and then turned back to Shinji. "Walk pass me and don't turn around."
"What? No! What's going on!" He wondered why Tabris was here and Kaji's strange actions bewildered him more.
"I'll explain later. Just walk don't look behind you. Section Two has the Vice Commander and the girls safe. Now go!" There was a real sense of urgency in the man's voice.
"Why don't we all stay and have a civil conversation?" Kaworu suggested nonchalant showing that he was not intimated with a pistol pointed to the back of his head.
"I said shut up!" Kaji shouted at him again.
"Do you know how annoying that is?" Kaworu replied in a condescending manner.
"What are you waiting for? Just go!" Kaji was now shouting at Shinji but it was for his own good. The young man flinched like a small child being scolded and relented.
Shinji slowly started walking towards the pair. Kaworu didn't say anything else and just stared at Shinji. The angel wore an amused face but his eyes told a different story. A maelstrom red flashed across them which almost caught Shinji in a hypnotic trance.
"This is boring. Let's make things a little more interesting." Kaworu brought up an AT field behind him and used it to push Kaji backwards. "Now that he's not bothering us perhaps we can have a little chat."
"What's going on! Why are you here?" Shinji stopped walking and faced his nemesis.
"Move in and secure Shinji." Fuyutsuki ordered quietly to the Section Two agents. His men did as they were told but stopped when Kaworu held up the remote detonator to the N2 mines.
"I would advise against that." The Angel suggested to the men and it worked. They backed down and helplessly continue to watch things unfold.
"Enough! Tell me what's going on!" With pure adrenaline pumping through his body, Shinji reached out and grabbed Kaworu by the throat. The uncharacteristic action by the normally timid Shinji caused Tabris to begin snickering.
"Ha! Are you angry my friend?" Kaworu's question had its desired effect. Shinji's grip tighten around Kaworu's throat and with his free hand Shinji reeled up to deliver a punch aimed straight at the face
"If you are upset now, just wait until you turn around." Kaworu's words made Shinji stop from delivering the blow. With still his hand still firmly around Kaworu's neck, Shinji turned his head to see what he was talking about. At that instant, everything stopped for the former third child.
The adrenaline and fury his body was using to fuel his actions stopped flowing. Kaworu and everyone else in the car park didn't exist. The only thing Shinji could hear his own heart beat gradually getting louder and louder in the recesses of his own mind as the lifeless eyes of his father stared up at him from the ground.
"Father… Father… FATHER…" Shinji violently shoved Kaworu away not caring where he went. He rushed to Gendo's side and began shaking his shoulders calling out for him. Everything that his father had done to him in the past and all the pain he caused was all but forgotten as Shinji cried out for him.
"I guess my work is done here." Kaworu said after regaining his composure and fixing his ruffled shirt from Shinji's man handling. "I'll let you get acquainted with your estranged father. I'll drop in at another time when things are a little less hectic."
With those parting words, Kaworu sunk into the ground after changing his appearance to the blue tincture that was now becoming his trademark. Kaworu's words didn't register with Shinji. He didn't care about anything else going on around him. He didn't care that he was lying in a pool of his father's blood. He didn't care that as he shook the body and specks of blood flew all over him.
"Get him into isolation immediately! Locate those N2 mines!" Fuyutsuki ordered. Kaji was closest to Shinji and went to grab him. To the head of Section Two's surprise, Shinji showed tremendous strength in fighting him off.
"Give me a hand here!" He shouted while struggling to restrain the young man from trying to wake his father.
SEVERAL DAYS LATER
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S CLASSIFIED! WHERE IS MY SON!" Yui screamed on the top of her lungs.
Fuyutsuki was in his office seated behind his desk on the receiving end of Yui on full verb assault. The past few days after the event in the car park, him self and others didn't get much sleep. Clean up work and investigations had to been done quickly and quietly. A city wide search was successful they managed to locate and disarm the missing N2 mines.
A convincing story about Gendo's death was leaked to the media via Section Two sources. The fabricated story of the former commander being fatal wounded during an escape from authorities seem to be accepted by the public. It was the fact that Unit One's latest sortie with Sandalphon in Alaska was still hogging headlines of the newspapers and new bulletins. So this took much of the spotlight from Gendo which worked in their favour.
Yui, pilots and the Evangelion support crew were immediately air lifted to the European branch based in Germany. Misato and Ritsuko who were on route from Alaska were also diverted to Germany. Ritsuko was reunited with her bridge crew and while under lock down their continued their work with what they had.
Misato's transgression in Alaska was all forgotten by Yui as the pair of them spent all their time and effort to find out what was happening. All were given no information about what had transpired and almost treated liked prisoners. They were in the European branch for almost four days.
"Commander… with all due respect… tell us what is going on and where is Shinji?" The Commander looked up at his Major. The woman looked like the walking dead. It was obvious that she had pushed herself these past few days in order to find out what happen.
"TELL ME WHERE HE IS!" Yui followed up her demand by lunging at her superior. Ritsuko and Rei quickly grabbed onto the distressed mother to stop her from making a mistake. "NO! LET ME GO!"
"Follow me… You will know everything soon enough." The old man sighed. He wasn't disappointed or upset that his subordinates were acting irrationally this time. He was genuinely sorry for keeping them in the dark for so long.
A group of armed Section Two agents arrived to escort everyone down to the car park where a number of cars where waiting for them. The heavy security was a sign that NERV wasn't going to take anything for granted.
They passed the scene car park where everything transpired. The area was taped off and strange men in unfamiliar uniforms were collecting evidence. The group stopped to look but were hurried along by their armed escorts. When they got into their cars the windows were so darkly tinted that they couldn't see where they were being taken.
"Where are they taking us Ken?" Touji asked his friend. The former sports jock knew that something serious had gone down and was really starting to worry.
"I have no idea… But those men in the car park had SEELE logos…." Kensuke was observant enough to catch a glimpse of their uniforms as they were almost rushed into the cars.
'Do they know that I've been snooping around for Shinji?' the young scientist thought.
They were driven around for almost an hour and then column of cars stopped. They were allowed out and found themselves in an old abandon factory warehouse.
"This is…" Misato had instantly recognised the place.
"That's right. This is old Tokyo." Fuyutsuki confirmed her thoughts. The Major had remembered the abandon and ghostly structures from the failed Jet Alone activation.
"Then how did we get here so quickly?" Ritsuko asked. Behind all of them a hidden ramp leading underneath the old city began to seal shut. It was a secret tunnel connecting the Geo-Front to the former capital now testing site. The tunnel was large enough for several cars to fit.
"Sempai, did you know about this?" Maya queried the blond doctor.
"This passageway was an initiative under taken by SEELE and GERHIN during the foundation of NERV." The commander explained and then continued. "Where you are about to be taken is a Level Six security restricted area. Not even the UN is aware of this facility. So your secrecy is compulsory. Should you divulge anything that you have seen today I can not guarantee your safety."
"Where is my son?" Yui almost growled. She didn't give a crap about any secret facility of SEELE or an access tunnel and she wasn't intimidated by Kouzou warning.
Then just like the underground passage way from the Geo Front, another opening appeared, this time in front of the group. It was lift and smaller in size. When doors opened two armed guards stepped out and another two remained inside. These men were tactically equipped and armed differently than the Section Two escort that accompanied the group.
Fuyutsuki was first to step into the elevator and everyone cautiously followed him inside. The two guards filed in after them and Section Two remained on the surface to form a perimeter.
The doors closed with a loud hissed and the elevator quickly descended with great speed. Hikari grabbed into Touji's arm as they flew downwards. Shortly, the lift began to slow down and eventually stopped. The doors opened and revealed a scene which none of them could ever comprehend.
It was an enormous chamber with steel walk way over a sea of LCL. The orange liquid was so still it appeared like a giant frozen glacier. Running along the sides the gantry were these white giant monstrosities. They had grotesque heads consisting of only lips and wildly over sized teeth. No other facial features existed. The LCL sat up to their chests and the rest of their bodies were visible through the liquid.
"Oh God… They didn't…" Ritsuko clamped her hands over her mouth in disbelief. She had heard rumours about such things but didn't really think it held some truth.
"What the hell are these ugly things? They are about the size of an EVA." Touji asked not holding back his thoughts.
"SEELE have completed the first mass production Evangelions." Rei answered for everyone. During her time with Gendo was had been privy to such classified information.
"Mass production? Are you saying that these repulsive pieces of junk are to replace my Unit Two?" Asuka asked as she felt more and more repulsed by the sight of the white EVA units.
"Did you think that you were going to pilot Evangelion for the rest of your life?" Fuyutsuki asked while providing a valid point for the existence of the MP EVA units which Asuka had never thought about seriously. Mankind could not rely on a handful of pilots for the forever. "Let's go we don't have much farther."
Kouzou started walking ahead. One by one the group slowly began to follow their Commander along the walkway through the middle of the MP EVA units. Yui and Rei weren't like the others who were more than a little fascinated by the new units.
"It's like a really big haunted house isn't it?" Touji mused as he felt the giant teeth of the MP EVA units were like they belonged to a sort of warped or deformed evil clown.
As Misato followed, she was quick to notice the numerous cameras mounted in the ceiling. This latest revelations about SEELE didn't do anything to help her opinion of the secretive organisation.
At the end of the long gantry was another set of heavy steel doors set in the rock, flanked by two armed SEELE security personnel. One of the guards activated a terminal next to the door and they opened. Inside was a narrow hall way, two more guards were inside.
Everyone filed in; the hallway they walked through had a number of other doors along the side. Each of them had a terminal to the side like the main entrance they just passed and only a unique code number painted on them. The code told them nothing that could have behind the doors.
The hallway seemed to go on for ages without an end in sight. When the Commander stopped at one of the other doors and swiped a key card he retrieved from his pocket in the terminal to the side.
The heavy steel doors slid opened with a mechanical grind. Behind this entry point was another hallway, similar to the one that they had just come. It was now obvious that SEELE had been clever to build their facility like a maze without any distinguishing features to confuse intruders should they make it this far into the complex and more importantly from others escaping.
"Stop wasting my time and take me to my son." Yui had enough of being led around. The only reason she was restraining herself was for Shinji's sake. And just as she had spoken Kouzou had stopped in front of another set of double doors. The older man looked like he hesitated when swiping his key card in the terminal. He knew that what lay on the other side would be difficult for them to see and understand.
The doors opened and unveil an extension control centre. A number of scientists were working at the terminals. Several massive monitors were mounted in the wall. As they entered the technicians quickly closed the screens to hidden the information that was displayed. Two familiar faces were also in the room. They were Ryoji Kaji and Lorenz Keel.
"YOU BASTARD!" Yui instantly lunge at the chairman when see realised he was in the room. She was quickly restrained by Kaji.
"WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY SON! I'LL KILL YOU! I SWEAR TO GOD!" She wasn't thinking rationally. Her burst of energy quickly dissipated and she slumped crying in Kaji's arms from being emotionally strung and exhausted.
Keel turned to his scientist and ordered them to leave the room for the moment. When they left he addressed the group.
"Shinji is alive but there are… complications…" when he paused to decide on an appropriate word for Shinji's condition, everyone tensed in the room. He went over to one of the console and typed in some commands. A picture appeared on the monitors and it was Shinji.
He was curled up in a ball in the corner of a bare room which looked like a holding cell. There were no windows or furniture. He was completely naked except for some sort of straight jacket which kept his arms tied to his side.
"SHINJI!" Yui pushed off Kaji and ran over to the monitor. She thumped her fist against the cold glass of the screen in a vain attempt to call out to him. She collapsed and began sobbing uncontrollably. Rei with Kaji and some of the others went to her side.
"No more lies!" Misato used the opportunity to pounce on the chairman. She wasn't armed but that didn't stop her. She managed to land a couple of stiff punches until she was pulled off by her Commander.
"Gendo is dead…" The chairman said spitting a bit of his own blood onto the floor. His news on Gendo caused Yui and Misato to stop.
"Tabris killed him." Keel refused to use the seventeenth Angel by his given human name. He then proceeded to explain what happen in the car park. How Shinji was injected with an unknown substance and use by Gendo to try and initiate his own version of the third impact. Then Gendo was betrayed by Kaworu for reasons that they don't know yet.
"That's still no reason to keep Shinji like some sort of zoo animal!" Asuka spat venomously.
"We still have no idea what Tabris did to Shinji." Keel said while wiping his bloody lip with his handkerchief. "We had to keep him like for his safety as well as everyone else."
"Why should we believe you!" Ritsuko voiced her objection to Shinji's treatment. "You managed to keep the mass production series from us and the rest of the world. For all we know, you could be using him for one of your sick experiments."
"Those days were during the reign when the board members were in power. I was very much against those initiatives." Keel denied Ritsuko's accusations.
"You release him this instant." Yui pulled herself up and spoke with voice that had never been heard from her before. For some reason it reminded Misato how Unit One devastated the fourteen Angel and began consuming its organs.
"Yui… please understand…" Before he could finish Yui had moved across the room with speed and agility not possible from a human. Her hands latched around Keels throat and the both of them fell to the ground.
"I feel her… It's Lilith…" Rei said in a mixture of fear and shock as her mother began emitting a blue hue like Kaworu did in the car park. People rushed to help pulled the enraged mother from the chairman but they couldn't make him. In the chaos, Fuyutsuki failed to notice that his cell phone was ringing.
NERV HEADQUARTER – EVA HOLDING CAGES
"Refill Unit One's cage with more bakelite!" one of the NERV officers ordered as everyone scrambled around the command centre. "Get the Commander! We need the pilots back! Unit One is reactivating."
As a safety precaution, Fuyutsuki had Unit One be taken off the combat roster and encased in bakelite. He wasn't going to take the chance of Shinji synchronising with the Evangelion until they knew his exact condition.
"What do you mean you can't reach him! Get the Vice Commander and the Major!" The officer had been told that the Commander was unreachable.
SEELE SECRET FACILITY
'DIE… DIE…' That was all Yui's was thinking about as she squeezed the life from the chairman. The others were not able to pull her off. Kaji had resulted to placing a choke hold on the woman. He was sure that he had applied enough pressure to cause an adult to black out but it didn't do anything to Yui.
'Yui! Please calm yourself!' A voice which she had not heard in a long spoke to her in her mind. 'This will not help Shinji.'
"Shinji!" the instant her son's name was mention she stopped choking Lorenz but the blue hue around her being remained.
'You must hurry to him! I'll guide you but I'm not sure how long I'll be able to remain connected to you.' Lilith told her. The Evangelion knew that it was only a matter of time before the extra bakelite they were injecting onto her would eventually be able to stop her.
Yui obeyed and ran towards the door, annoying the pleas from the others. Under the directions from Lilith she ran and weaved through the sterile maze that was the SEELE facility.
Eventually, she came to a door with four armed guards. The men didn't give her a warning and begin firing their sub machine guns. An AT field generated and protected Yui from the bullets. The field was then used to push the men against the door which rendered them unconscious. The heavy steel door was no match for the AT field and they were knocked down with no difficulty.
Yui was now in a larger hall with Shinji's cell suspend from the ceiling. It hung at least twenty feet up in the air and there was no sign of a way to access the hanging prison. Then an azure ramp appeared before her.
'Quickly! He's up there!' Yui didn't hesitate and sprinted up the AT field ramp. Before she reached the top, two diagonal sliced through the cell door and the four triangle pieces fell away.
'Thank you, Lilith…' Yui's heart spoke.
'Remember… Shinji is your son… no matter what happens he is your son…' That was last communication from Lilith as the AT field ramp disappeared behind her leaving the mother and son alone in the cell.
Yui ran over to her half naked son curled in the corner. She pulled him into a hug and began crying his name. Shinji didn't respond and just stayed limp in her arms.
"What's going on! How the hell did she do that!" Asuka asked out of breathe. The other's eventually arrived in the room.
"Shinji!" He was freezing so Yui immediately took her coat off and wrapped it around him. She grabbed his face and tried to get him to talk. What she saw in his eyes scared her most in the world. His normally innocent baby blue eyes were gone; only an empty glaze was there.
"Please say something! Anything!" She wiped his still tears. "I'm here! You don't have to be scared anymore!"
"I… killed… him…" Shinji's three whispered words had an effect so profound, its pain was incalculable and was the first time Yui felt that she could not do anything to help the person that mattered to her most in the world.
END OF CHAPTER
AUTHOR'S
NOTES
Many
thanks for the positive reviews. Especially to the guys who have read
from the start. And thanks for Wickerman for looking over this
chapter.
I'm not sure how Gendo's death will be received but I originally wanted Shinji kill his father while under Kaworu's influence but thought that was a little too much.
Things are starting to unfold slowly so bare with me.
Thanks for reading, Wonga316
