Judecca

"Alright, this is the last one!" Kaji hit the back of the truck with his fist. The driver gave him thumbs up, and started the engine.

As the truck carried the wounded away, Kaji turned to look at the line of citizens. Police and Section-2 agents had joined forces to make the evacuation smoother and faster; but even then, it wasn't enough.

"Damn those demons and their power to appear out of nowhere," he said, going for a cigarette. Then he remembered that he had promised to reduce it to one per week, and his hand stopped.

"Chief inspector, look!"

Some people were running towards them from the other end of the street, the one closer to the battlefield. Kaji, thinking that they were more survivors, was about to order the paramedics to assist them; but then he noticed something wrong about them.

Many things wrong, in fact. Their orange coloration was just the first.

"Hurry the evacuation!" he commanded, instead. "I need armed people here! Form a perimeter and keep them away from the civilians! And don't let them bite or scratch you! I've seen enough zombie movies to know where this could go!"

He soon found himself wishing that they were zombies. The orange people moved way too fast, and their expressionless faces were worse than looking at the rotten, growling visage of any undead. Even when a bullet hit their heads and they fell, they didn't show any emotion. And they seemed so human in their facial features and bodies… were not for their color and the funguses growing here and there, it would've been uncanny.

Kaji joined the other agents in defending the perimeter. He took the dirty duty of shooting a teenage girl with puffy lips who was getting dangerously close. One bullet. The next, a bald and stout bearded man, needed three shots.

"What…" a police agent next to him was doubting. "What if they're people controlled by the Demon?"

"I'll take full responsibility," Kaji said. "Just protect the evacuation route!"

"I can't do that!" another said, this time a Section-2 agent. "That one looks like my wife! Is it you, Sumire? What have they done to you?"

"Don't let them fool you! Your wife is in the shelter, you saw her! Maintain your positions!"

But a crack in their defenses had opened, and the homunculi took advantage of it. One managed to slip pass them, and although the agents were quick to gun it down, more soon did the same.

"Retreat!" Kaji ordered. "Someone call our men ahead! Tell them to have their weapons ready! Shoot to kill, people! We have to…"

His words died, and his conviction faltered, when Misato came running, among the horde. The face was older, but it was her. He had never seen her so serious, so lacking in emotions. It was almost like looking at an orange funerary mask, fresh off the corpse.

His head wanted to pull the trigger, but the finger didn't respond. He knew what he had to do, but his heart was paralyzed by doubt. He suspected that these things weren't real people… but what if he was wrong?

Misato was in front of him now, her hand raised, about to strike.

Then, her head was sliced off, and her body chopped into three pieces.

Kaji blinked, the shock dragging him back to reality. Sosuke Oshiba was there, his katana stained in orange fluid. He was also holding a phone in one hand.

"…and he better not be so stupid to not shoot the one with my face! I'm serious, if Kaji dares to die because he mistook an orange copycat with me, I'll kill him!"

"Okay, fair enough," Ryoji conceded.

Junior and senior stood back to back as the fungoid puppets kept advancing. Extra Section-2 agents had arrived with Sosuke, and there were no more civilians around; but even so, their chances didn't seem too good.

"So," Kaji said. "Bought a new katana?"

"Yeah," Sosuke smirked. "Now it's time to test it. What about you? Got enough bullets?"

"Never leave home without them."

Something flew above them at high speed, so fast that they could only see a blur. A few of the orange zombies collapsed, with hardened grey feathers stuck in their heads. Kaji recognized them.

"It looks like we have air support!" he said. "Now keep fighting! Don't let these monsters get to our loved ones!"


Asuka rubbed her arms. They still hurt. Bubbles escaped from her mouth as she sighed. It was so dark that she could barely see her own legs. None of that made a dent on her good mood, though.

"One last bite." She patted the control lever. "Thank you, Unit-02. Too bad that we can't smash that Demon's ugly face; but it was enough. Now it's Shinji's turn."

Another Asuka watched, and couldn't believe it. She was fine not winning? She would leave everything to the brat of her world? Shikinami snickered and huffed at that. Her brat hadn't come to save her when she had needed him the most. He had failed her three times, in fact.

Crushed by the maw of a Unit-01 he had lost control of.

Pulling the spears.

And the beach…

How could this version of her trust him so much? Had things gone so differently in this reality?

Had they gone to an aquarium together, as well? Had that Asuka been smarter than her, and she hadn't sealed herself behind a videogame? Did she get to show him her cooking? Had he said something, done something, when she had plopped onto his bed?

Was that Asuka a living weapon bred for war, too? Or had destiny been kinder to her?

Perhaps they were more different than she thought.

"But you know," the Asuka in the seat mumbled. "I'd still like to fight again, and win. Or at least, help my friends win."

Shikinami smiled. Not so different, it seemed.

Her spirt floated down in the LCL, and put her hand above Sohryu's. In an instant, light filled the tube, and the two Asukas could meet, at last.

"What the…" Soryu asked, looking at the apparition who looked like an older version of herself. "Who are you?"

"An ally from far away," Shikinami guided Soryu's other hand to the corresponding control lever. "I'm going to help you save your world from that monster."

Colors danced on the walls. The timer marked one minute, then two, then five…

"I have to warn you," Shikinami said, "it might hurt. A lot."

"He," Sohryu smirked. "Give me your worst, sister."


Shinji and Iscariote clashed one more time. He still carried with him the strength and fury of the storm, and his body would shoot lightning bolts every once in a while, burning spots in the demoness' body, or vaporizing some of the fruits on the ground. Alas, it was never enough. The branches kept producing new ones, and the wounds in the trunk and roots kept healing.

And she laughed as the orange mist crept further and further into the streets.

Branch and fist met, and the shockwave sent debris flying all around them. Even some of Iscariote's puppets were hurled through the air; but the tree-demon didn't care.

Then, a noise made them stop. Their heads turned in time to see Unit-02 on its knees, its body convulsing, moving and growling, despite the lack of cable.

Bone, veins and muscle tissue sprouted from the Eva's stumps, weaving themselves around each other into two new arms, longer than the originals end ending in clawed hands. The legs lost all the semblance of humanity when the knees bent backwards, and their bone structure was reorganized to resemble the hind legs of a large feline. The armor on its back cracked and burst as dorsal spikes emerged, black and bent forward. Even a fleshy tail grew, ending in a chitinous blade.

The Eva's neck became longer, thicker and muscular as his mouth, now free, opened wide, showing long and sharp canines. It roared, and it was neither the voice of a human, nor the one of a beast.

"So there you went, Princess," Iscariote hissed. "So predictable."

Unit-02 rushed forward, running on all fours like a predator on the hunt, leaving a trail of dust behind. Many roots raised to stop it, but the red Eva avoided some, and sliced through others with fang and claw.

Shinji stretched his wings, returned to an aerial position, and shot more lightning, distracting Iscariote. Unit-02 jumped forward, maws open wide, and bit one of the branches. Asuka didn't care about the sympathetic pain of the spikes in her face, or that her synch rate was so high that bleeding wounds had opened around her mouth. She bit down, as hard as she could, and so did Shikinami, and they commanded their Eva to do the same.

The whole branch snapped with a wet noise, leaving behind a stump bleeding black.

"You think this will stop me? It's just one!" Iscariote shrieked as Unit-02 jumped out of the range of a counter-attack.

Shinji took that opportunity. He flew close, and lightning erupted from his right arm-wing as the membrane hardened, enough to slice one of the branches, and irradiating so much electricity that it burned the stump.

"Worms!" Iscariote howled. "You're worms, just like everyone else in the other world!"

The faces of her breasts opened their mouths, but instead of a twin stream of deadly pink light, they just shot two energy blasts, each in a different direction, trying to hit both the Demon Lord or Unit-02.

In perhaps an echo of their synch training, Asuka and Shinji reacted the same way: they caught the blast with their teeth, and they crushed it into sparkling dust.


Rei was taken by surprise when the lights returned. The screen came to life and showed her the current battle, and she tilted her head in confusion at the new form of Unit-02.

"Rei!" Misato's voice came through the comm. channel before she could even think of standing up. "How did you manage to connect a new cable?"

"It wasn't me, Major."

"Nevermind, we'll check the cameras later. We need Unit-00!"

"Affirmative. I shall go aid the other pilots."

"No, Rei!" Ritsuko intervened. "We need you to protect the evacuation routes! MAGI has discovered that the orange mist contains a potent neurotoxin!"

"Go to Chief Inspector Ryoji Kaji!" Misato said. "He has set up a perimeter, not far away from your position. Use your AT-Field to block the mist's advance! Let's make sure that at least a section of Tokyo-3 won't be contaminated!"

"Roger."

Unit-00 rose to its feet and ran towards the coordinates that appeared in Rei's screen.

Not too far away, hidden in the shadows of a surviving alley, among the Nerv cameras they had previously destroyed, two figures watched it go.

"It feels weird to help them," Lamia said, almost unable to contain her amusement.

"We didn't," Vorak replied. "It was just the faster way to get rid of that thing. It was blocking the view."

In the distance, the clash of titans continued.

"Too bad that we can't get rid of the red one," Vorak said, pointing at Unit-02. "It'd be interesting to see if the Usurper can defeat Iscariote alone."


In a single swing of his katana, Sosuke beheaded three of the orange puppets. One of them was an exact copy of Kaji.

"Hey, look," he said. "I always knew that you'd lose your head one day."

"Go shave your groin with a chainsaw, Oshiba." Kaji reloaded and kept shooting.

"Chief inspector!" a Section-2 agent yelled over the gunfire. "The perimeter in areas 40 and 39 won't hold for much longer! And our comrades in Area 57 had to retreat to 58!"

"Dammit," Kaji put a bullet in the homunculus of an old lady. "There's no end to them!"

Sosuke sliced off the legs of three more, making it easier for the other agents to shoot them. Another barrage of sharp feathers, courtesy of Ura, eliminated most of the incoming wave; but the next one was already close.

And the swordsman noticed something else coming.

"Ryoji. Look."

A wall of orange gas followed the homunculi, swallowing cars and debris in its wake. It seemed to creep around the structures, as if looking for victims that could breathe it. Almost as if it was alive. And whenever the gas touched one of the dead fungoid copycats, it revived them. Bullet holes closed, severed heads grew new bodies and decapitated bodies grew new heads.

"That can't be good," Kaji said.

"Message from Headquarters!" the same Section-2 agent from before announced. "The mist is toxic! Keep your distances!"

"Alright, everyone! Fall back, but don't stop shooting!"

Bullets flew through the air as they retreated, but the speed of the orange puppets didn't decrease. As for the gas, it seemed to be expanding faster by the second.

"Ryoji," Sosuke said. "I think it is chasing us."

"Weirder things I've seen in this year alone. Alright everyone, forget the shooting! Just run until that mist is no longer on sight! Call the other perimeters and tell them to do the same!"

And run they did, until the ground trembled and many of them lost their balance. But they didn't fall prey to the orange puppets or the gas, for a hexagonal barrier made of light protected them. Unit-00 had arrived, expanding its AT-Field to cover as much area as possible. Kaji and Sosuke watched the homunculi punch and claw at the ethereal shield in vain, and breathed a sigh of relief.

It didn't last long, for once the gas arrived, they noticed that it began to swirl in places, as if trying to push past the barrier, or even drill through it.

And, maybe it was a trick of the light, but it seemed that the AT-Field was being eroded here and there.


"You must be soooo proud of yourselves!" Iscariote spat as her body bled black. "What, you think you have won? Just because you tore some branches? Oh, I see you there, Princesses. That funny form of yours won't last forever."

Unit-02 growled, with stripes of pink flesh hanging from its fangs. It circled the tree, slowly, never looking away, like a hunter waiting for the prey to make a mistake.

"And you!" Iscariote looked at Shinji. "I can tell that you haven't awoken even half of Dante's One Hundred Powers! You are just as weak and pathetic as the other Puppy!"

Shinji stood defiant on the ground, electricity crackling in his claws.

"Well," the demoness cracked her neck. "This was fun, but it's due time to end the game. The world ain't gonna conquer itself."

She raised her remaining branches, but the dangling fruits didn't fall. Faces appeared in them, like the ones on her breasts, and they opened their mouths, each firing a thin beam of blue light. Asuka ran and Shinji flew, but they couldn't avoid all of them.

The tip of Unit-02's tail was severed, along with two of its dorsal spikes. One of its four eyes exploded in blood, and one hand was pierced by a beam. Shinji got a long, burning cut going from the left thigh to the right shoulder. His right knee was left with a hole, and so did one of his biceps.

Shinji went up, up, away from the range of the beams, back into the clouds. He needed all the energy, all the power the storm could provide. He absorbed even more lightning, so much that the clouds shrank around him until they disappeared.

On ground level, Unit-02 was running towards Iscariote. Soryu ignored the hole in her hand and her bleeding eye, all her attention was on their enemy. Shikinami called for their AT-Field, but instead of appearing as a barrier, it began to coat the body of Unit-02.

"Oh?" The demoness chuckled. "Have you not learned that it's useless against my kind?"

Her fruits shot more beams, but the red Evangelion avoided them. All of them, this time. Changes began to appear in its AT-Field. It became more solid, more defined. It covered every inch of Unit-02's body, from the claws to the wounded tail; and it was becoming more animalistic than the Eva itself. The gas and the debris burned now around Unit-02, and it ran faster than ever before. A living fireball.

And up there, Shinji shone, his fur white due to how much electricity had stored. His body released lightning constantly, and like burning whips they hit the battlefield, leaving burning marks on the ground. The Demon Lord flapped his wings, and it was as if a thunderbird from legend had incarnated over Tokyo-3. And, when he flew down, right towards his enemy and leaving an electric trail behind; many would've thought that a furious comet was descending from the heavens.

Iscariote raised her roots to stop Unit-02, but they too burned in its wake. She shot beams at Shinji, but they were deflected before they could even touch him.

Asuka screamed, and so did Shikinami, and Unit-02 roared with their anger.

Shinji roared too, and his shook the whole city.

They clashed, and a blinding light engulfed the battlefield.

And nothing happened.

An AT-Field blocked their way, just as they were about to pounce on the demon's main body. Unlike the ones they had seen before, this one was bright pink.

"Surprise!" Iscariote exclaimed, smiling from ear to ear. "This is a souvenir from the other world!"

Shinji and Asuka didn't desist. They didn't care about what it was. They didn't care about the color. All that mattered was that they had to cross it.

"This isn't like the AT-Fields of White Invaders! It has the power of not one, not two, not three, but four Adams! Now, become my meal, or be atomized!"

And the pink hexagons took the shape of an enormous feline head with many eyes. It opened its mouth, showing long fangs of pure light, and it pushed.

Lightning and fire pushed back. The very ground melted at the clash of forces. Steel and stone alike were consumed by the maelstrom, whose grumbling was so loud that the even those in the shelters and the Command Centre could hear it. Only Unit-02, the King of Demons and Iscariote herself could stand in the very heart of the devastation.

And someone more, but only because she had no body left that could burn.

The spirit of Mari Makinami touched the snout of the tiger-shaped AT-Field. She glared at the demoness on the other side, and when she spoke, her voice rose above the cacophony.

"I was there when you ate the Adams! This AT-Field is also mine, and I can open it!"

A crack appeared in the barrier. It was very small, barely visible. Not enough for any of them to pass through, not even close. However, Shinji and Asuka poured all of their fury, all their hopes, and all their borrowed power into it; and the crack became bigger. And bigger. And even bigger; until a chain reaction caused the whole field to shatter.

"This is for the Puppy," Mari said. "And for the Princess. And for making me go around sniffing people like a weirdo."

Iscariote's scream of horror and rage was silenced when Shinji and Unit-02, and all the energies they carried, reached the main body. The trunk, the roots and the branches burst into flames as the wrath of a storm ran through her body, making the fruits and the spikes explode. A consuming heat, born from fire and lightning, eroded the skin of the demoness and charbroiled her flesh.

With the speed and power of a meteor, Unit-02 blasted through Iscariote's main body, vaporizing the stomach and a good portion of the chest. Her long lower arms fell down into the inferno, and were consumed.

Shinji sunk his thundering claw in Iscariote's face, crushing the skull and everything inside. Then, he let the flames climb him, so that they could reach the maimed head and turn it into ash.

And it was done.


The roots stopped just as they were about to touch Nerv's pyramid. Before the amazed eyes of everyone in the Command Center, they shriveled like flowers in the winter, and then they were consumed by a burst of flames coming from the surface.

White ash fell on the pyramid, and everyone rejoiced.

"Now what?" Fuyutsuki asked. "The old men will want to know why we stopped transmitting all of the sudden before the battle began."

"We didn't," Gendo smirked behind his gloves. "Our systems stopped working due to an unidentified problem in the network. By the time we solved it, the fight had damaged our outer cameras too much."

"Do you think they'll believe it?"

"Just make sure to delete all recordings of the battle, even from MAGI's memory."

"Are you sure, Ikari?"

"SEELE is nervous enough already. The last think we need is for them to learn that there are other universes."


Unit-00 deactivated its AT-Field as the mist vanished. The orange puppets had stopped, and now they were dissolving into black dust to be carried away by the wind.

Kaji looked up, searching for a trace of Miss Ura; but she found nothing. Most likely, she had gone somewhere safe, where she could adopt her human disguise and later pick up her daughters from the shelter.

"Alright, everyone!" he said. "Let's get ready to receive the clean-up crew!"


Unit-02 laid motionless in the center of the crater, back to its normal form, its arms gone once again. The Demon Lord fell to his knees next to the Eva, and columns of smoke rose from his body as he shrunk.

Mari watched from above, at peace with herself for the first time in years. It was a sad peace, for she had lost so much, and she would never be able to clean the stain of her first failure; but at least she had saved another Puppy and another Princess. That was enough.

A hot wind, remnant from the battle, carried Mari away, higher and higher, along with the ashes of what remained of her world. That other Tokyo-3 below her became less defined, like a dissipating mirage. She knew it was the other way around, though. That place, and all of its people, would live on.

She waved them goodbye, knowing that they weren't looking at her, and even if they did, they wouldn't see her. They couldn't, not anymore; but it was fine.

"Miss Mari?"

She looked up. Someone had come to meet her, there, among the floating cinders.

"Puppy?"

He wasn't an adult in a suit, nor a teenager forced to pilot. He was little, just like she remembered him from long ago, before the demon had taken over her body.

Those happier times when Yui was still around.

"I'm lost. I can't find mommy."

Mari took his hand, so tiny in hers, and smiled.

"Don't worry, Puppy. Your auntie will help you find her."


The entry plug had darkened once more. Shikinami could sense her grip on that world weakening. Her power, from the old reality, was gone for good, and soon she would be, too. And yet, there was no regret in her heart.

Was that what victory felt like?

Sohryu slept, exhausted by the experience. Shikinami put a ghostly hand on her forehead and called to that Unit-02 one more time, asking for just a little more power.

A presence came from deep within the core and granted her wish.

"Thank you." And she used it to heal the girl's eye, hand, and everything else.

The LCL began to be drained, a sign that someone had taken the entry plug out. Sohryu coughed in dreams, but didn't wake up. A moment after that, the door was ripped away, crushed as if it was cardboard instead of steel.

"Asuka!" the brat came in. Shikinami took a good look at him. Just as scrawny at hers, the same puppy eyes, the same worried expression.

Worried. For her. And this one had come, instead of doing nothing.

She had no idea what the deal was with the horns and the wings, though. Why did he have a tail?

"Asuka!" that brat called her name again, getting closer, leaning over her and putting a clawed hand on her shoulder.

"Mmmh…" Sohryu woke up with a groan. "Shinji? Did we win?"

She moved, perhaps with the intention of standing up. But she didn't calculate well, and a THUNK reverberated in the entry plug when her forehead hit his horns.

"Ouch! Careful, you idiot!"

"I'm sorry! But… but aside from that, you're fine, right?"

She kicked him. His mouth trembled, and he laughed. Sohryu tried to keep an angry and serious face, but her own lips betrayed her. She soon was laughing too, kicking him with barely any force and telling him how dumb he was.

Shikinami smiled.

She turned around and floated towards the core of Unit-02, curious as to what was in there. She left the brat and her other version behind, wishing them the best of luck. Deep, in the darkness, a flash of light blinded her for an instant. When the glow settled, she found a woman of about her age, perhaps a bit older. Her hair was the same shadow of red as Sorhyu's

"I see." Shikinami said. "So this is how Evas work in this world. I don't envy you. I'm sorry, I guess."

The woman came closer and extended her arms.

"I'm not your daughter."

No, she wasn't, and the woman knew. Still, she hugged her. It was warm. Comfortable. Safe. Shikinami closed her eyes, and when she opened them, she was a teenager again. Her own arms rose, hesitant, and circled Kyoko's waist. Did she deserve to feel that warmth, after everything?

Kyoko didn't answer. Kyoko didn't judge. Kyoko just wanted her to know that she was loved.

Shikinami, now a little kid, returned the embrace with all the strength of her tiny arms. She cried. She smiled. She laughed.

She won.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

List of Shinji's Demonic Powers: Lightning breath and blade-wing (original powers, as far as I know they don't appear in any incarnation of the character)