+++++ ? (Saturday + 7)
The dissolution of the waking world and the arrival of the world that existed within his essence was like living through an act change in a television series. One instant the protagonists are standing outside a manor house, speaking about plans. The next, they're standing inside the house itself. Nothing between. A grim blackness radiated out in all directions in this new scene Shinji stood within, menacing with unrivaled power. His eyes refocused on Maria, his words carefully chosen, Be very explicit. If I have even the slightest doubt you're lying to me, I won't willingly give you this chance again.
"There is no known power, save from the one who set these Angels in motion, that can separate a White soul from my reality from a White soul from your reality. He will not, under any circumstances, cooperate with you or your compatriots. To him, you are anathema. To him, they are ignorant children that must be cleansed from the face of all creation so that his vision of reality can live. I was able to make him flee from the Princess because she is a being of immense power and was fighting him for control with all of that might. To her, duty is everything. To her, failure is unthinkable. She did not allow him to make her 'tap out'." Maria stepped closer to Shinji, maintaining eye contact as she placed herself directly before him. "Her allies are not nearly as strong. It is their very nature that allowed their corruption. Their fundamental need to partner with you to create something far greater than anything this universe has ever known. It is regrettable and lamentable. I take no joy in telling you this, I do not cheer for the loss of warriors against the Howling Dark. Were it within my power, or if I had knowledge that might enable it, I would save her without hesitation."
There was no way he could twist or turn those words to make them seem duplicitous. He was accustomed to people lying to his face with the truth, to people presenting him falsehoods that pushed him to do what they wanted. What Maria gave him…was the painful reality of the situation before them. She truly knew of no way to save Ami. If she did, she would have done so. …Thank you. I appreciate…. He looked down, trying to fight against the despair choking his mind. I'm glad you didn't lie to me.
"I will not lie to someone I care for as much as I care for you." Setting her hands beside his ribs, she massaged his soul to further encourage it to reunify with the shards that had been pried loose by the attack. "I am not perfect. I may look it. I may even act it, from time to time. But I have flaws, just like any other woman." She smiled sadly when she saw him look back at her. "Don't push me away. If you need me to come in here and build up the trust you were never taught how to give, I will. If you just want me to come in here so that you know for certain I'm really being honest, I will. I care about you. Not as…a tool, or a ploy for power. I care about you because I have seen into your soul. I have seen into your heart. You will shape the essence of the universe itself, and you will do so to save the worthy and unworthy alike. From themselves, if that is what it takes. There are few people with such strength of character. I am certainly not among them."
He was growing tired of hearing words he couldn't understand. How can you care for someone you just met?
"The same way that you have come to care for people you've just met." The way his soul struggled to congeal again was worrying. "I feel, from you, a warmth that I have never felt before. I see, in you, both capability and capacity. You have refused my affection, an act that I have never once seen before. You have both nearly killed me and fought to save me. You are a mass of contradictions, a puzzle that has no solution. You interest me, Pet. I am neither easily amused nor simply dissuaded." Floating up, she pressed her lips to his. I do not mind that you have others interested in you. It simply proves that you're worthy of interest. Slowly breaking the kiss, she put her heart in her eyes. "You don't need to choose only me. I'm a succubus, after all. If you find someone worthy, I can garner pleasure from them just as easily as you."
If this is what I bring into people's lives, Shinji's brow knit, a flare of anger building at the inference that he would dare cheat on someone he loved, then I doubt I'll be choosing anyone at all.
+++++ Minato, Japan. (Saturday + 7)
Shinji forced Maria out of his soul, realigning his perspective with the reality around his physical form. Ignoring the pained and worried look he was receiving from the beautiful shopkeeper, he turned to face where Ami was beginning to gain the upper hand against Michiru and Haruka. Ok. We need to get the fight closer to the harbor. There are fewer people there, and fewer buildings around to destroy if this gets…more dangerous than it already is.
Minako wormed her way under his arm, holding him close. "Are you ok? You're looking scowly."
Maria doesn't know a way to save her. She's far more intelligent than I am and has far more experience than I do. I'm scowling because I can't think of a way to save someone who found a way to save me. His scowl lessened as he looked down into the eyes of trust. I'll give you everything I have, but someone else is going to have to do the saving. All I can do is act as bait and try to limit the destruction this Angel is causing.
"A noble endeavor in its own right." Rei moved to stand in front of him, placing her hand on his heart. "Should we fail, do not take that as an indictment of your character or your effort. Mourn with us, not for us." She glanced over at Minako, receiving a nod. "It's becoming rather apparent that staying away from you isn't the answer either. We're going to have to make some major changes in how we do things, like it or not. We'll discuss it afterwards, so don't you go running off thinking that we hate you." Her smile held pain and sorrow that showed she understood him very well. "Because we do not."
You don't have to. Anger colored his thoughts again. I hate myself enough for all of you. Freeing himself without being rude or touching anything he ought not to, he stood tall and felt out how well his body was doing. Which direction is the fastest way to the harbor?
"South-southeast." Maria wasn't pleased with his decision, but she knew that to win a war battles often needed to be set aside for a time. "Follow the trail I leave; I'll make sure you find it."
Pressing his hand against one of the wounds on his shoulders, he pulled away mostly dried blood. I'll get her attention. You two help Uranus and Neptune contain the damage. When we get there…it's in your hands. I'll be focused on defense and evasion. Pain. No matter what he did, it always came back to him hurting somehow. Maria…do what you can to help them once we're there. His first few steps were unsteady, blood loss and adrenaline mixing poorly, but the fear of failure drove him to ignore both. Racing in a straight line towards Ami, he hoped that the two sailors currently engaged in combat would understand his intent.
Unit-01 responded to his desire, oozing into place around his body instead of the typical immediate appearance, lending him additional speed and strength. Five steps out, Michiru positioned Ami so that the corrupted Sailor was facing away from him. Three steps out, the bluenette seemed to sense what was happening and turned to face him. One step out, he threw both of his hands out wide, and just as he was right next to her, he swung those hands back in and against one another to strike the infested Sailor for Mercury with the blast wave from a thunderous clap. With the shockwave driving her up and towards the direction he wanted to travel in, he went to run at full speed in the direction Maria was leading him, Ami giving chase soon after.
Michiru and Haruka limited their pace to Rei and Minako, waiting patiently for information and hoping that introductions weren't going to take up a lot of time. It was the blonde Sailor of Love that cut through any small talk with, "Not sure who you two are, don't really care. You're on Shinji-kun's side, so here's what we're doing." A quick briefing laid out the general intent of their actions, eventually summed up with, "I have no idea how we can expel this thing from her. I'd normally look to Moon for help through healing, but she didn't even answer our call."
"Pin her down, perform an exorcism?" Haruka was impressed that neither of the younger Sailors had made a fuss. "You can do that, right Mars?"
"I can exorcise spirits," Rei offered, "but if this isn't a spirit there's no way of telling what an exorcism might do. Shinji believes it is an Angel, and that…woman believes that there's no way to separate them. She'd know if an exorcism would work, presumably."
"It won't." Michiru had looked at the truth of the matter not long after they'd freed Shinji and had simply bided time until she could speak to the other Sailors alone. "We are not fighting Ami Mizuno. We aren't even fighting Sailor Mercury. We're fighting against what every living being in the entire universe will become if we don't win." Her eyes never left Unit-01. "This abomination is neither Angel nor Sailor. It has killed her and is twisting her soul. The longer we let this continue, the less likely we'll be able to achieve the best possible outcome."
Minako was unamused, hearing someone speak so cavalierly about killing her friend and ally. "It sure looks like Ami. How are we supposed to trust you? You two just show up out of nowhere, and the only reason I'm not kicking your ass is that Shinji says you're responsible for Neptune and Uranus."
"What do you believe to be the best possible outcome?" Rei wasn't terribly thrilled with the conversation herself but was willing to at least listen to all available data.
"Her soul bonding with the others inside of Shinji."
A loud crash halted that conversation, refocusing everyone on the fight at hand. Unit-01 had reached Tokyo's harbor district, and in a stroke of ill-luck had been struck by a shipping container that the creature possessing Ami Mizuno had thrown at him. Tumbling uncontrolled along the cement pier, he was only stopped when Maria appeared and halted his momentum while sustaining damage herself in the act.
Shinji shook his head, trying to stop his inner ear from making him feel like he was spinning still. Thanks. It wasn't the time to be angry at someone helping him. It wasn't going to help him save Ami, and it wasn't going to solve anything. With knowledge gained by how she reacted to the thunderclap, he made the decision to fight Ami as if she were capable of taking serious punishment. His hope was that she'd forgive him later when he begged. Just as the bluenette landed before him, he grabbed a nearby pallet jack and used it like a cricket bat to strike her, sending her several hundred meters away. We need to-
A sudden tidal wave smashed both him and Maria from behind, causing him to stagger and her to exude an aura of physical pressure to shove the water to either side. "…No."
Rising from the water, floating far above it as if it were swimming through the air itself, was the Sixth Angel. An elongated aquatic predator, rows and rows of sharpened teeth displayed themselves before the roar of war cracked the night around them. Sea water dripped down like rain as it passed overhead, rushing directly for the four oncoming Sailors.
If it's there…how is- Shinji wasn't able to finish his thought, forced to dodge a slashing tentacle of liquid ice. Nearly tumbling into the water, he grabbed onto a docking pylon and was once again saved by Maria who pulled him off the ground and up into the night sky. A quick glance to his side showed her to be focused more on the former Sixth Angel than on the now surrounded Sailor of Mercury. He could only do one thing at a time, and there was no way for him to help save Ami. Let's get on top of it. The orb should be in its mouth, but we don't want to just fly in there.
"That we do not," Maria agreed.
+++++ Tokyo Harbor, Japan. (Saturday + 7)
"He is ours, Gaghiel!" The being that once was Ami ignored the four Sailors around her, glaring at the flying piscine Angel. Taking one step forward and moving to launch herself into the air, she grumbled to herself, "We love him, you don't."
Before she could get away, Minako lashed her chain of golden hearts around the bluenette's foot and yanked her back down to the ground. "Oh no you don't. We're not done here yet!"
"This fight was over before it began, slut." Coating the chain in ice, she broke it in half with a tap. "You and the frigid bitch there stand even less of a chance against me than the carpet munchers behind me do." After another step towards Minako, she summoned two long daggers made of jagged ice. "None of you have the slightest idea of what he is. What he's capable of. All you want is to make lovey eyes at him, walk down the street on his arm to rub it in everyone's nose that you 'won'." Stopping just outside of slashing distance, she snorted her contempt. "You'll understand. Afterwards." Blocking Haruka's cutting swipe with ease and spinning out of the path of Rei's burst of flame, the next stage of the fight began.
+++++ Skies Above Tokyo, Japan. (Saturday + 7)
It wasn't that staying on the Sixth Angel was incredibly challenging for Shinji, somehow he had better traction on the flesh of the Angel than he'd had on the ground below. It wasn't even that the wind tearing at him slowed his punches. What truly frustrated him the most was the sensation that he was forgetting something incredibly important. Something that he could have told someone. Something that might change what was happening below.
Attempting to tear open a hole into the Angel, Maria wasn't having any more luck than Shinji was. I might be able to find something back in my shop. No guarantee of that, though. The enormity of the Sixth Angel dwarfed any six of the buildings below combined. Each artifact she brought to mind simply did not have the capacity to reach deep enough for what his mind was telling her. How did you beat this one?
Sank two battleships into the ocean, shoved them in its mouth, and pulled the trigger. Giving up on his attempts at beating his way through Gaghiel's hide, he knelt down and tried to feel what he had been punching. It's flexible. Pliant. Acts like rubber.
I'm sure he moisturizes, Pet. Maria frowned with irritation. What's your point?
Physics. He glared back at her, his anger not forgotten despite being set aside for the moment. Rubber doesn't deal well with rapid shifts between heat and cold. It becomes brittle and thin. I don't have access to those at the moment. There are two women back at the harbor who do. Both had to brace themselves as Gaghiel smashed into a tower, sending it crumbling to the ground. Go get Hino-san and Kaiou-san! This keeps up, we're going to be saving a damn graveyard!
+++++ Tokyo Harbor, Japan. (Saturday + 7)
Minako had never seen her friend fight like this. They'd faced spirits, youma, demons, and queens. Sparred with one another, showed off for one another, tried to push one another higher. She truly believed, in her heart of hearts, that none of those women she felt to be her sisters had any secrets from her. That their abilities were all known. The shallow cut she'd taken on her arm had proved her beliefs to be anything but based in truth.
The creature that might no longer be Ami Mizuno slipped around their efforts like water. She struck back like a blizzard. Four on one would have been impossible odds not one week prior, now it was looking like it would take forty to even slow her down. "Oh, come on, ladies. This is downright pathetic!" A back-heel kick to the face of Neptune turned into a point of leverage to spin her other foot under Uranus' sword, disarming the tall blonde. "Is this the best this reality has to offer? It's a wonder that Father even worried over your births back home."
Maria slammed into the ground where Ami had been a half second prior, driving both heels into the cement pier with terrifying force. "He probably should have been more worried about me. Neptune and Mars, my beloved has need of your assistance. Kindly leave the mouthy bitch to me."
"Come," Michiru grabbed Rei's arm, hauling on her to hurry away. While she didn't trust the enigmatic shopkeeper, she did not doubt her allegiances at the moment. The woman wanted Shinji's good favor, that wouldn't be garnered by lying in the middle of two fights.
"Oooo, scary." Ami idly twirled one dagger between her fingers. "The runt of the litter thinks she has a chance against me." Her amused smile gave way to a titter of derisive laughter. "Really, if Agrat were here, she might have stood a chance at beating Father."
There was a moment of horror in Maria's mind as she saw what was happening the instant the inevitable began. Haruka, after recovering her weapon, had intended to slash at Ami's midsection from the side, driving her forward into an unfavorable position against both her and Minako. The blow was not intended to be fatal, if it made contact it was meant to wound at the most. When the bluenette former Sailor stepped towards the blow, instead of away, Maria knew which of the Angels it was that had infested her.
The top half of Ami Mizuno was liberated from the bottom at the navel. Both pieces spun with the momentum of the blow and the effects of gravity. Minako and Haruka were left flatfooted, neither believing what had just happened, neither realizing the danger they were now in.
"Scatter!" Choosing the young woman that hadn't recently threatened her, Maria grabbed Minako and dove away just as Ami's lower half grew a new upper half. The upper half mirrored the action, and each produced two blades and sported matching smiles. The motion, which could only be described as a smile by virtue of the corners going up instead of down, held less warmth than the daggers that glistened with the light spray from the nearby ocean. Having repositioned herself and the golden blonde Sailor, Maria growled out a curse in a language none present would understand. "Israfel."
+++++ Skies Above Tokyo, Japan. (Saturday + 7)
There was little Shinji could do to change the fates of those Gaghiel was intent upon killing. Each building rammed enraged him. Each scream cut off suddenly far below infuriated him. Each rolling sound of laughter from the Angel at the slaughter it enjoyed was another band of iron crushing his skull. He was standing inside a weapon designed to kill Angels. He wore the solution to the problem. Somehow, despite that advantage, he had never felt more pathetic. There was no Misato to give him plans. No Asuka to come up with an idea. No Ayanami to help him protect anyone. He was alone, and he was useless.
Michiru landed first, taking a few more steps to bleed off her momentum as she reached Shinji's side. Shouting over the wind, she asked him simply, "Plan?"
Rei alighted next to him on the other side, gripping his upper arm for balance and looking down at what was left of the Shinjuku Ward. "Spirits give them rest…."
Rei-san, I need Michiru-san to freeze a two-meter patch right there. Pointing to an area above where he remembered the orb being, he looked to the raven-haired priestess for help translating his thoughts. After she's done that, I need you to hit it with as much fire as you can. Keep repeating that until it cracks.
Her eyes narrowed, then she slowly nodded in understanding. Keeping a grip on him, she leaned over to shout the instructions, "Where he pointed! Freeze it solid!"
"Got it!" Holding up her mirror, the emblem of her powers, the Sailor for Neptune prepared to will the crushing frozen depths of the sea to aid her.
It was only Shinji's fast thinking that stopped a tragedy, acting on reflexes honed by combat he grabbed both Sailors and pulled them beneath him as he dove to the surface of the Angel. The roar of a trio of fighter jets zipped past, a series of air-to-air missiles slamming into Gaghiel's side nearby. With his A.T. Field in place, no shrapnel struck them, but the explosion created a pressure wave that battered all three of them, and the blast itself was deafening from that distance. Damn it all! Scanning the air around them, he made certain that there wasn't another wing inbound immediately before letting the two ladies up.
Michiru shouted to one of the few warriors she trusted completely at her back, "Cover us!"
He couldn't be certain that their magic would work through his A.T. Field. He wasn't even really certain that he could flex his A.T. Field out the way he had when catching the falling bomb Angel. Won't know unless I try. Seeking that feeling he'd been trained to locate, Shinji flexed muscles that only existed in his mind and pressed outwards with the light of his soul. It was only after he'd done so that he stopped and thought about what, exactly, that meant he was doing.
Rei Hino, now enveloped in the warm glow of the core of Shinji Ikari's emotional and mental truths, looked at him with tears welling in her eyes. Every disrespect, every blow both physical and emotional, every injury he'd ever suffered was no longer just a vague mental image in her mind. She felt the world how he felt the world, and she wanted to weep with the knowledge that he believed he deserved the scorn and abuse. No, her thought, now reaching his mind as their souls comingled, was as powerful as it was quiet, it was them who deserved it, Shinji-dono. Let's end this fight, and then you and I are going to have a long talk.
The Sailor for Neptune needed no reminders of what had been done to the man guarding her. She needed no encouragement to feel the need to lay his head on her lap while his body lay across Haruka's. She had over a thousand years of memories of a man who'd lost all faith in humanity but had fought to the bitter end to save it. Showing her mirror to the spot on Gaghiel's back that he'd asked to be frozen, she blasted the patch of flesh with water that had never known the light of day. After five continuous seconds, she ended the torrent and gestured for Rei to do her part.
Just as she was about to, four gunship helicopters took up position in pairs on both sides of the Angel, raking the surface with rockets, gunfire, and missiles. Midway through the barrage, several projectiles struck Shinji's A.T. Field creating the tell-tale hexagonal impressions along the dome. That drew the attention of someone in the aircraft, leading to increased fire being directed at both him and the two women he was sheltering.
Where normally the training cannons used at Nerv striking his A.T. Field felt more like he was being struck by frozen peas thrown by toddlers, these attacks felt like a legion of Touji Suzuharas beating on him nonstop. Damn it, we are trying to protect you, assholes! Wincing and flinching with each new heavy strike, he glared at the closest of the helicopters. Do we look like the giant fucking shark monster?!
Rei realized that time was dwindling for them to be effective and directed twin gouts of flame at the center of the spot that Michiru had struck. With the wind howling around them, buffeted by the motions of Gaghiel and the rotors of the helicopters, much of her flames bowled outwards and towards the military craft instead of limiting its touch to the Angel. While effective in creating thermal variances on the surface of the Angel as Shinji's A.T. Field degraded that section of the Angel's, it also caused all four helicopters to break off long enough to reposition above the flames before resuming heavy bombardment.
Back and forth the two Sailors worked, Shinji doing everything he could to shelter them. Nausea, dizziness, and anger all swam around him. Pummeled by missiles from jets, rockets and machine guns from helicopters, and the occasional heavy bomb from a bomber, he felt every hole Ami had dug into his flesh with her attempt to remove someone from his soul. His patience thinned. This needs to end.
+++++ Tokyo Harbor, Japan. (Saturday + 7)
Maria and Minako had managed to adapt their fighting styles to the other's strengths. Darkness and Light, Bone and Metal, each gave ground as necessary to force the cloned copy of Ami further back towards the seawall. The Sailor for Venus only caught the occasional fleeting glance of the Sailor for Uranus and the swordfight between two apparent masters at the craft. She repeatedly cursed herself for a fool, knowing that she'd grown lazy and content with their abilities as they'd been. If she had put any thought into what came of water when exposed to different temperatures, she'd have known that Ami was capable of far more than just creating fog, mist, or rain. She'd thought her friend 'weak', and that was no one's fault but her own.
A cloud of shadow thrown over Ami's face, a barrage of exploding heart-shaped light. Baiting out a lunge to give an opening for a leg sweep. A whip around her legs to prevent a killing slash. Each woman gave everything they had against a foe that seemingly knew what they were going to do before they knew themselves. Their attack patterns were analyzed, dissected, and rendered useless by the smirking bluenette. The tactics simply were irrefutable.
I need to end this. Minako had developed serious doubts about their chances of restoring Ami once the woman had developed a literal split personality, and fighting to capture against someone fighting to kill them was not a winning proposition at their power levels. "Uranus, switch up!" Shouldering Maria clear of the attack she was about to unleash, she switched her mindset to one of lethality. "Crescent Beam Barrage!"
There was a microsecond of shock in the clone's eyes before the strike struck home. Whatever it had been calculating, it hadn't accounted for Minako 'giving up'. Unable to avoid all of the wildly snaking beams, trails of light obfuscating others behind and around them, she took several serious wounds on her torso and leg that slowed her while they healed.
Haruka wasn't certain what was expected of her, but wouldn't deny the request to try something new. She hadn't been able to land an attack that would incapacitate the other woman, and had mostly been fighting a holding action while the other two used the advantage of numbers to accomplish the mission. Forcing the clone she was fighting backwards with a combination kick and backflip, she saw the determination on Mianko's face as the golden blonde Sailor of Love dashed beneath the arc of her jump.
Whatever the clone had expected from the switch in opponent, it did not receive when Minako closed in well past the effective range of the ice blades she had been wielding. Too many, too often, confused the moon-eyed flirt for a prototypical 'ditzy blonde' that was all figure and no ferocity. Her foes forgot that behind the beauty and grace lay a warrior who had been vanquishing evil before even Usagi had awakened to the memories of a past long buried by time.
A punch to the gut flowed into an elbow to the sternum led to a knee between the legs and then a vicious headbutt. As far as Venus was concerned, there was only one Mercury before, and a clone of Mercury was only spare parts. She grabbed Ami's wrist as the woman tried to invert her long dagger for a downwards stab, twisting the arm past the point of snapping joint and bone. Her opponent now only had one functional arm, and a glare of shocked disbelief as she vied for time to heal. Time that Minako was not going to afford her.
+++++ Skies Above Tokyo, Japan. (Saturday + 7)
In combat there is a universal truth, 'No plan survives contact with the enemy intact'. Successful militaries train their warriors to adapt to the circumstances as needed to accomplish the mission they have been tasked with. The purpose of the mission does not have to make sense to the warrior, only the need for it to be completed. Armies live and die on the actions of the units within them, on whether each cog in the machine has done what was asked of it, with the knowledge that the enemy also has their own tasks that they will attempt to pursue while defeating those first units.
The United States Forces Japan had responded swiftly to the presence of an enormous monster attacking the capital city of their ally nation, both to defend the Japanese citizenry and to protect their own vital military position in a freshly minted post-Soviet Asia. Entire wings of aircraft were now engaged in bombarding the flying fish that was destroying building after building. Artillery units and anti-air units were racing to get into position to do what they could. Infantry and armor were diverted to assist in evacuation, their main weapons insufficient to the task of assaulting the enemy.
These plans had been drafted swiftly, in coordination with the leadership of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, both militaries having trained extensively to work in tandem to defeat what they'd believed to be a potential communist invasion from any of several nearby nations. Orders flowed down to every unit capable of reaching the battlespace, intelligence was gathered where it could be found and disseminated to those who could maximize the use of it, calls for necessary assets were sent out to those further afield. An entire machine designed to engage in a brutal, bloody, war against enemies that were expected to have no compunctions about slaughtering millions kicked into gear and began to perform at a level well above what even the most hopeful commander had anticipated.
One seventeen-year-old reminded the world, again, that the 'enemy' gets a vote too.
Shinji couldn't see straight out of his right eye, the orb offering between three and four versions of whatever he looked at. He could hardly hear the roar of the wind for the ringing in his ears from the explosions. His left arm was cold and numb. His right leg burned as if it had been stabbed by the Fourth Angel. He held the responsibility for two women in his hands. Two women who gave everything to make sure that their task was accomplished. Two women who had no armor but that which he gave them. Two women who had trusted him to ensure they would not die while saving the world. His allies were under attack.
Both Michiru and Rei missed Unit-01's highlights changing from green to red. So focused on their timing, they did not see the ring of brilliant white slither into place around its crown. What finally tipped them off to the fact that the game had changed was the sound of metal tearing itself catastrophically apart. The shrieking wail of the tortured muzzle that had been intended to stop the beast within the machine from consuming the Angels it destroyed rang out over the explosions. Unit-01's howl of rage struck everything outside of its A.T. Field with visible force, sending half of a dozen helicopters into at least as many others.
Shinji…kun? Rei turned to face him, sensing a power beyond anything she'd ever faced. What's happening?!
A bomber approaching on a run, two kilometers away and five kilometers above, was obliterated as twin beams of entropy blasted out of Unit-01's eyes. The sympathetic explosions of every munition yet unreleased by that bomber lit up the night sky as if it had suddenly become day.
"No. No, no, no." Michiru, instead, ran over and tried to plead with him to regain control over himself. Shouting over the wind, the explosions, the buildings crumbling, she begged a good man to regain control over himself. "Shinji, please! PLEASE!"
Lightning began to rain down on those poor airframes that hadn't lost control in the first blast of sonic pressure. Single trunks of electromagnetic power branched out into inverted trees, leaves of plasma swirling in the wind to finish off any that the forks of electricity managed to leave intact.
"What is he doing?!" Rei found that neither she nor Michiru could reach him physically. There was a barrier, millimeters deep, just around him that prevented it. "Have you seen this before?"
Another roar presaged more death. Every bomber, fighter, and helicopter whether transport or attack for hundreds of kilometers around was sought out and erased from existence. The Purple Engine of Destruction had grown weary of being challenged for the right to murder the Angel and would have it no longer.
"When I died!" Putting all of her force behind trying to reach him, Michiru ached to prove to Shinji that he was in control, not the beast that dwelled within the heart of every Shinji Ikari. "If we don't stop him, he's going to explode!"
Unit-01 did not care about the Sailors. Protecting them was the weak flesh's wish, not hers. The Spawn of White must die. They must suffer a million deaths. They threatened uncountable lives, the death of two more would not outweigh that duty. Stalking past them, it made for the weak point created by their attacks.
"No!" Leaping up, she grabbed onto the pylon on Unit-01's right shoulder, holding onto it with all of her might. "Please, Shinji! Remember! Remember what we've done!"
Rei didn't know the history in play any more than she knew the future at stake, but if what was happening was dire enough to rattle the calm she'd sensed from the other Sailor it was clearly worth imitating her tactics. A quick leap brought her to the left pylon, her own voice joining with her peer's, Please, Shinji-kun, we can't just kill everyone over a misunderstanding! They don't know what they're doing, they can't understand what we're doing! Come back to us, let's finish this fight and go back to the temple. I'll make you something to drink, we'll talk. I can help with your suffering if you just let me!
Even with extra baggage on its shoulders, Unit-01 had no trouble reaching the point it had desired. There, below, was the weak point it needed. The crimson orb that gave the flesh around it life and purpose. All it had to do was eat it. Consume it. Become one with it. Infinite energy, infinite purpose, infinite life lay within reach.
"I SAID NO!" Appearing from the night sky above, the Sailor for Pluto came crashing down to smash her key-shaped staff squarely between Unit-01's eyes, snapping off the horn protrusion that adorned the center of its mask and staggering the biomechanical weapon. A front flip kick to the gut just before landing drove it further back and resulted in both pylons being torn from their respective shoulders as the Sailors holding onto them were whipped free. Standing tall and glaring down at Unit-01 with pure hatred, the long-haired Sailor demanded, "Give. Him. Back."
+++++ Tokyo Harbor, Japan. (Saturday + 7)
Not that Maria would ever tell anyone, but she had more than a grudging respect for the Sailor for Venus as she watched the young woman dismantle the Sailor-Angel hybrid. She herself was no neophyte at battle and had more than once commanded small units to victory. If it weren't for her own ruthlessness in war, she would only give herself an even chance at winning in a one-on-one engagement with Minako.
The piece of Israfel that Minako fought was now attempting to squirm away from her foe. Missing one arm, the other shattered in six places, one knee bent the wrong way, and blood oozing from countless gashes and abrasions, it recognized the fight had become a distinctly one-sided affair. What Minako didn't know, however, was that she was being baited into a trap. Separate from one another, the Israfel twins could not be destroyed. So long as either half of their core still existed, both remained inviolable.
What the splinter of Israfel didn't know was that Minako was no longer the largest source of danger. Unit-01's roar washed over everyone, the arrival of Death itself heralded by a wave of pure terror. Even the half of an Angel couldn't ignore what it knew was a form of life that would not yield until one or the other had been destroyed completely. That flinch gave a new opponent the opening she needed to resolve the problem permanently.
In earlier days, when life was far less complicated and the future far brighter, Usagi Tsukino might have shouted out her attack to gain confidence, reduce her enemy's confidence, and rally her allies. Ideals such as those she once demanded of herself were discarded in this new war. The man she had to support had brought with him a far different type of enemy. An enemy that could not be cowed, that could not be brought to heel. Landing with perfect form on the toes of her left foot, directly next to the ribs of the woman she would later mourn, the Sailor of the Moon swung her right foot forward in an equally perfect arc and punted one half of Israfel into the other. She knew Shinji's mind. She knew of his previous defeat of Israfel. She knew Ami would understand.
The other three women present watched in horror as both halves of the hybrid merged into one, only for the unified Ami Mizuno to be obliterated in a coruscating rainbow beam of death. No warning. No quarter offered. No attempts at witty banter or blustering threats. Enter Usagi, exit Ami.
With an aura that echoed that which Unit-01 emanated, the ruler of the Moon Kingdom looked only at Maria. The long, silent, stare was full of meaning. It spoke far clearer than any words that she knew what the Succubus planned. That she knew of Shinji's role in the future the weaker sister of Lilith desired. That patience and cunning were the tools of the shopkeeper's trade. More than any of that, however, it informed Maria that the only path to Shinji Ikari…lie through Usagi Tsukino. "That is your only warning. Another attempt, and no force alive or dead will stop me from leaving less than a whisper of a trace of your memory to be mourned." The drumbeat of thunder that split the skies above as Unit-01 brought destruction to the war machines of man seemed pale in comparison to her tone. "Leave."
Maria had been told by her sister that pride was her biggest foe. That she'd allowed herself to become enamored with her own skill and power. She had often thought herself more than a match for even the most powerful of her sisters, that The Wanderer must truly be beyond such petty descriptions as 'powerful' to have cowed Lilith into accepting only a piece of him. What she now faced proved that even her vaunted skills at knowing 'things' had missed a power hiding in plain sight in her own reality. Despite herself, she couldn't still her tongue, "He deserves a choice, Rabbit." She might as well have said nothing at all for the reaction she garnered. Turning to Minako, she offered respect where it had been earned before turning and walking away. "She was a good woman, Queen of Hearts. I offer both my condolences and services as a shoulder to cry upon, should you desire either. Farewell."
Haruka and Minako were still staring at where the corrupted Ami Mizuno had been wiped clean from reality. Each woman couldn't believe what they'd seen, what a woman they both knew to be full of bubbly giggles and mirthful mischief had done. Within them both had been planted a kernel of doubt, was their fate to be the same? Would she show no hesitation in murdering them, if they were 'infected'?
"Should either of you become pawns of his, you would beg me to show less restraint than I just did." With Maria gone, Usagi looked directly at the distant form of Gaghiel, feeling Shinji's own battle for control. "Her soul is free, now. Her fate no longer tied to something far worse than Death. She'll find her place…her peace." A single tear slid down her cheek, unseen by either of the others. "Come. When his fight is over for the evening, he'll need us there with him."
+++++ Skies Above Tokyo, Japan. (Saturday + 7)
Rei Hino could only watch, stunned as yet another Sailor managed what it had taken four of her friends to accomplish. Instead of the flame red that typically denoted Unit-01 losing all capacity for rational thought, the limited highlights and brilliant halo made it clear that whatever was happening was a far different animal than the one that had threatened her life repeatedly. The long-haired beauty that was currently beating the tar out of Shinji did so as if she knew everything there was to know about fighting it.
Unit-01 attempted to fire lasers from its eyes, she disappeared from sight only to reappear next to it, smashing the butt of her staff into its jaw. The beast then summoned a strange ring of polyhedrons brimming with the same energy that powered its shield, she slid under them and swept his legs. It grabbed for her, she danced around and through its guard. It lashed out at her with fists, she deflected them harmlessly aside. Each strength that the terrible foe might have used to succeed instead became her asset to use against him to set him up for another blow.
Sailor Mars had thought the woman's strategy was to bleed the anger from it. To slowly stabilize Shinji's emotional state so that he could regain control. Surprises, however, were not yet done presenting themselves to her that evening. Halfway through a stumbling punch, Unit-01 was reabsorbed completely leaving Shinji in tattered clothes, with his nose broken, his shoulders bruised and disformed, bleeding from the wounds Ami had given him, and all around haggard. She was three steps towards him before she saw the strange new woman hold up a hand to stop her.
"Stay back!" Pluto carefully helped Shinji to his feet and walked him over to where they had been bombarding with temperature extremes. Rei couldn't hear what had been said, if anything, between the two, but there was a faint hint of embarrassed jealousy in her heart as the tall green-haired woman kissed him with the type of tender affection typically reserved for use between husbands and wives in private.
Rei was heartened by the way Shinji blushed, clearly not so used to the act. Another short conference between him and Pluto led to him nodding, fatigue gaining ground. His eyes drifted shut, his head slid backwards, both causing her to want to rush over and begin treating his wounds. It was only Michiru holding onto her arm suddenly that stopped her from doing so, which saved her when Setsuna slammed her staff down, embedding it inside of Gaghiel's flesh and acting as a conduit for the plume of lightning Shinji brought down upon it.
The flying monstrosity suddenly lost rigidity, and both Sailors that had been fighting it were given no choice but to be far more concerned about their own evacuation plans than whatever it was that the others were doing. Rei wanted to ensure that Shinji was all right, he had earned both her assistance and trust by not giving up on Ami, but gravity demanded that she allow the new woman to care for him. The ground grew larger and more distinct, other thoughts needing to be put aside so that she didn't land on a chunk of rebar…or a human corpse.
Fortune smiled on her as she found a patch of rubble that was solid enough to bear even her diminutive weight. She then took a moment to look around to assess the potential for danger. They had, prior to Shinji losing control, been under attack by the military. What she saw…explained why they were not being fired upon. Charred corpses, ruined machines of war, weapons split into pieces by impacts and lightning. …Did we just fail?
"Failure would require that we had a chance of success." Usagi's voice was tired, though her presence was unmistakable as she climbed the mound to stand by her friend. "There was nothing we could have done differently. Everything we might have attempted…he had already prepared counters for." With her eyes on the slowly descending forms of Shinji and Setsuna, she lowered her volume enough to only be heard by Rei, "Before this is over, he is going to need you."
Rei looked at her friend with a frown. "What do you mean by that?"
Usagi kept tracking Shinji, ignoring the way that Gaghiel's remains smashed into the ruins of another tower. "You are coming to view him as a colleague. As a valued warrior. He needs more from you. What this world will ask of him, before I will be able to return him to where he came from, would kill a lesser man. As it is, it might just drive him mad. Don't leave him alone. Let me do what must be done, instead. He will need everything you can offer him, and more…." With a flood of gore and viscera flowing further towards the distant bays, the last thing she would say on the matter was uttered more for her own sake than anyone else's, "Even that might not be enough."
"Usagi-san." Michiru and Haruka moved to take up positions between the most likely landing spot for Shinji and the Sailor for the Moon. The shorter of the two women, just as tired as everyone else present, nonetheless managed to retain her regal demeanor as she addressed the younger warrior. "We have spoken on this. You…did what you had to do, now I will ask you politely to leave him to us. We don't-"
"Leave him to you?!" Minako stepped up next to Rei and Usagi, glaring daggers at the two lovers. "Lady, I don't even know who the hell you two are! I wouldn't leave a friend with people I've never met, let alone someone like Shinji-kun."
"Listen, kid," Haruka wasn't in the mood for histrionics, "you're more than welcome to stay and watch as we patch him up. Even the archer there is fine. We just don't want Bunny there causing havoc with his-"
"We are going to take him," she shot back, "and we are going to go try to find Ami-chan's mother! He is going to want to be there when we-"
"You will find that our purposes align, Venus." Michiru held her hand between her love and the blonde Sailor of Love to stop the argument. "I have faith that Usagi-san does not want to cause him further pain. I pray that she will prove my faith justified."
Rei watched Usagi's face the entire time others were talking. Beyond what she'd been given to think over, that her presence was necessary to Shinji more than it already might have been, there was the niggling sense of doubt, of wrongness, that was radiating out from her friend. "…Who are you?"
"The other half of a power far greater than any we had thought him to be." Usagi finally looked over to Rei, a pained, sad, smile on her lips. "This will get worse before the end. You and I have squabbled, we have disagreed…we have bled for one another. I am trusting you to do what you know to be the right thing. Please…do not allow him to forget what he truly is inside." Turning her head towards where Shinji landed, held upright by Setsuna, she squared her shoulders and moved with implacable resolve towards him.
Haruka and Michiru, to their credit, kept their word and attacked. Without a gesture, without a word uttered, both found themselves launched behind Usagi into the remains of two different buildings. Still the Princess of the Moon marched. Holding a fist-sized red orb in her hand, Setsuna glared death at the Rabbit only to be stopped by Shinji weakly grabbing her elbow and shaking his head. The young man freed himself, and with as much dignity as he could muster, he walked towards someone he knew to be in pain that went beyond his own.
Stepping up against him, Usagi brought his head down and gave him a kiss that reminded Rei of that which Setsuna herself had given him. And, just like that prior show of affection, this one caused Shinji to blush to the roots of his hair, even in those places that were more purple and blue than flesh-toned. She could see that all of his energy was focused on remaining on his feet, and that any attempt to stop Usagi from kissing him would have resulted in him either stumbling to the ground or making a larger mess of the woman with the blood on his body and clothes. Breaking off the kiss, reluctantly, Usagi whispered something to him that no one else heard. He replied by nodding, sorrow choking whatever reply his mental voice gave to her alone. Usagi stroked his cheek, offered a few more words and a smile of heartfelt love, and then nodded herself before leaning her head against his chest.
"I will tell you the same thing I told her, Pluto." Her fists clutched Shinji's shirt, the debate over who was leaning harder into who one that nobody wished to wager on. "This is your only warning. Another attempt, and no force alive or dead will stop me from leaving less than a whisper of a trace of your memory to be mourned." Receiving only quiet rage in return, she looked back up to Shinji and said three more quiet words…then disappeared.
There was little time for further discussion, or any other major decisions to be made. No sooner had Usagi vanished, than a commanding voice shouted, "Freeze! Nobody move!" Each warrior present turned their heads slowly towards the sound, noting a mixed group of United States Military and Japanese Self-Defense Forces aiming rifles at them. Standing closer to the bend of the L-shaped formation, behind the lines of armed enlisted, an older officer was clearly attempting to make some sort of sense out of what he saw before him.
Rei and Setsuna noted Shinji's motion first. Neither wanted to precipitate a firefight with the people they were trying to protect from beings far stronger than any the Earth had ever seen, and so both hesitated as he acted. What anger registered on his face fought against fatigue and sorrow for dominance, his every movement shouted far louder than any words he might have used that despite being bone-weary he was singularly capable of eliminating anyone who might harm one of the women standing there. Unit-01 formed around him, far faster than it had earlier, but without those pieces that Setsuna had broken off with her actions. A slight haze appeared in a dome around the group, with him at the center, as his A.T. Field once again responded to his need.
Shocking everyone, it was Minako who took charge of the situation. "Sir, please ask your men to lower their weapons. We have just finished losing one of our own taking down these beasts. He," she gestured to Unit-01, "does not want to hurt anyone here. He just wants us all to go back to our base so that people trained in searching for injured citizens can work without distraction." Her hand switched to pointing out Gaghiel's corpse. "Unless you truly believe that your guns can hurt someone who killed that, all you are doing is wasting time that could be better spent saving lives instead of threatening them."
I…will kill them if they shoot. The armor was keeping him upright, but Shinji's mental voice demonstrated that his words were not so much empty air. Each of the women he covered heard the same simmering rage beneath the calm. Won't hesitate. I do not know if I can keep my Field up for much longer. We need to go.
"As a show of good faith, we will calmly walk away." Rei moved over to stand next to Shinji, trying to show him that he wasn't alone in all of this. "Please, let us all part ways in peace."
The officer clearly had his orders, and no intent to question them. "I said freeze! You have invaded the-"
"We're Japanese, you blithering kumquat!" Haruka stalked down to flank Shinji on the opposite side of Rei. "We can't invade a nation we're citizens of!"
One of the Americans spoke over the yelling to the man next to him in the line, "Corporal, my Jap is shit."
The corporal, without taking his eyes off of the Sailors and Shinji, answered briefly, "They brought down Jaws, Master Sergeant. Lost a man doing it. They want to leave SAR and CASEVAC to the pros, unass our A.O., and deal with their own casualties."
Rolling his eyes towards the skies above, the first soldier blew out a heavy sigh. "Alpha, stand down." Lowering his own weapon, he motioned with one hand for the others in his unit to do the same. Looking over to the officer in charge, he pre-empted the man's displeasure, "If you think I'm going to feed my men to the folks who brought down whatever demon that was, you're nuts."
There was now confusion amongst the JSDF enlisted, glances cast towards both the American and their own senior enlisted member. Eventually, the senior-most enlisted from the host nation shook his head and lowered his own weapon before informing the officer, "Sir, I cannot in good conscience follow orders delivered by men who wear sunglasses at night. I will not commit war crimes; the Emperor has charged us with acting with honor."
After most of the Japanese soldiers followed the lead of the first to de-escalate the situation, the first American called over to Minako, hoping the blonde spoke English, "Hey, your team have a name? Something I can put in the report I'm going to have to make?"
"I'm afraid not, sir. We're just a group of friends that can't stand to see bullies and demons hurt people." Giving him a slight bow of farewell, she urged her allies to start walking away slowly. "Thank you for your help, and please be safe returning to your base."
The last two to turn and leave were Rei and Shinji. Setsuna had pulled on his arm in an effort to move him, but the Eva pilot refused to break the staring contest the officer in charge was engaging in. Eventually the officer blinked first, looking away at a loud noise from a section of a nearby building collapsing, giving Shinji an excuse to walk away. Get off my arm. Yanking his limb free of Setsuna's grasp, he walked stiffly down the far slope away from the military towards the ground floor.
The Sailor for Pluto noticed that he did not, however, remove Rei's grasp on him. Hurrying down after, she didn't bother hiding her confusion and worry, "Shinji, what's wrong?"
After they were clear of line of sight, he allowed Unit-01 to return to his soul. This meant he was leaning more heavily on Rei, and he was heartened when she neither complained nor shied away. I can kind of understand why you kissed me at Todai. I…have flashes of memories where you did that. The kiss was probably necessary to jog my memory. I can accept that you're just the kind of person who's…affectionate. It was clear that he was struggling to strangle down his anger. What I can't accept is distracting me when I'm the only one preventing Kaiou-san and Hino-san from being torn apart by explosions or thirty-millimeter fire! He felt Rei clutch him closer, working his shoulder further over so that she supported him more fully, and gave her a weak smile of apology in return. His mental voice, however, continued to chastise the long-haired beauty from Pluto. I don't know what happened between me blacking out and me waking up taking a swing at you…but you stopped me from focusing on shielding people relying on me. Don't do that again.
"Shinji-kun," making a vie to bring the temperature down some, Rei drew his attention to her, "please feel free to use my given name. You fought valiantly, you suffered without complaint, and even now you would throw yourself into the fire to save any of us. You are not the man I accused you of being, and I apologize unreservedly for accusing you in the first place. We have much in common, you and I. Let us not create unnecessary barriers between us."
While not the effect she was looking to produce, his tone became somber and pained as he looked to her again. I'm…I'm sorry. I wasn't there to help. I wasn't there to try and distract her. His left eye, the far less swollen of the two, dampened as tears threatened him. How am I going to ever be able to apologize to Mizuno-san? Rei made an effort to organize a response through her own sadness at losing a sister, and even Setsuna made to set aside her jealousy and irritation, when both were shocked at what came next. I can feel her inside of me.
Everyone had their attention pulled directly before the place where Minako, Michiru, and Haruka were waiting when the same limousine that had taken Shinji to dinner screeched to a halt on the road, the footman hopping out and running around to open up the passenger doors. "Get in, get in!" The woman was aggressively waving everyone towards the vehicle, glaring at anyone who hesitated. "We have got to get you back to the apartment building! Get in!"
