6:40pm, Down Town Tokyo-3
"Are you okay, Shinji-kun?" Misato gently inquired over video-link.
"I-I think so..." No sooner had Shinji uttered these words, the command to "release final safety locks" was barked. The sudden feeling of gargantuan weight made him nearly lose his balance.
It was so weird a feeling, to be within the Eva. Inside this strange pod filled with the ghastly tasting orange substance known as LCL. Apparently the substance could be breathed and spoken through without gargling or distortion.
In a way, it felt like breathing air.
But the taste of it...it was blood. He was no stranger to the taste, as any of the numerous blows from his teacher filled his mouth with the thick red liquid, but there was something altogether more wrong about LCL.
He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was an almost ancient and terrible power to it. As for the plug itself, it was cylindrical and metal in nature, yet after a flurry of colours had coursed through it, he had a complete three-hundred and sixty degree view of his surroundings in crystal clear vision. This was how the Eva saw the world. This was how a god viewed its playthings. Tightening his grip on two control sticks, which apparently didn't actually control the Evangelion but provided an adequate placebo effect, he quickly gave a look for reassurance at the video feed in the corner of his vision, gaining a nod from his commanding officer.
"Unit 01, move out!" Misato ordered from far below on the observation deck of NERV's command bridge. To her side stood Ritsuko, watching the display intently, cigarette in hand.
In front and below them, the staff worked furiously, providing constant updates on the well being of Shinji and the purple monster he currently resided within. His synchronisation rate hadn't been very high, but it had been enough to move the Eva.
Just.
Unit 01 took a huge step forward, shaking the streets of Tokyo-3 as it did so. A few staff even cheered at the sight of something they'd worked on for a decade actually moving. That soon died as the Eva lost its balance and landed face first on the ground.
Shinji grunted as he felt pain akin to nose breakage.
"Shinji-kun, you need to move!"
Sachiel was now looming over his would be foe, a look of contempt etched on his bony face.
What's this? Lost your footing have you? Please, allow me to give you a hand...
With his left arm, the Seraph gripped the Eva's head and lifted it off the ground. His other arm then clamped down on Unit 01's left arm and pulled.
Shinji shrieked in pain as he felt his own arm dislocate, then start to break as it was unnaturally stretched.
"Don't worry, that's not your arm, you're just feeling what the Eva feels. But you have to move now." Misato desperately pressed, whilst Ritsuko had strode over to her "apprentice."
"Status report, what the hell is going on with his defences?" She sternly commanded, and Lieutenant Maya Ibuki responded with all due haste.
"A-T field not expanding, cause unknown!"
"What do you mean unknown!?" The combat operation's director's voice became louder, as Shinji's screams increased in volume when the Eva's arm was broken.
Finishing the incapacitation of his opponent, Sachiel set about finishing the job. A spear of energy jutted out from his hand, and started hammering on Unit 01's faceplate. After a few pulses, the armour cracked.
Shinji held his eye as the general feeling of white hot pain coursed through it. And then the armour broke, and the boy howled.
The staff of NERV watched in horror, shock, and awe, as their last hope was flung through the air. It crashed into one of the buildings which couldn't be lowered to safety with the structure crumbling from the impact.
The Eva slumped forward, unmoving, as its eyes began to dim. Sachiel withdrew his spear of energy and started to advance towards the stricken super weapon, his footsteps shaking the world.
Have you no honour!? Rise and fight coward, that is but a scratch!
Shinji watched the Seraph advance, fear gripping his heart. Nothing would move, no matter how hard he tried. Mankind's greatest weapon would become his tomb.
And so he started crying.
The boy had hated life, he truly had.
Ever since the death of the one person in the world he knew without a doubt loved him, he simply existed. Between the loneliness and beatings, Shinji thought he would welcome death when came for him, as it did for all things. But now, as death marched inexorably towards him, he was afraid.
He didn't want to die.
"Abort mission! Retrieve the Pilot, his life is our top priority!" Misato desperately barked, tormented by the knowledge she may have willingly sent an innocent child to his violent end.
"Signal's not being received! Synch rate down to twenty percent and falling!" Maya started shivering, knowing full well what would happen if the Eva were to be destroyed.
The Seraph would come down here and kill them all.
"No...no...no..." The purplehead's heart sank as Shinji's sobs tore into her heart.
I used him. I saw him as a tool and I used him. And now he's going to die for that...I'm just as shameless as everyone else here.
She couldn't look away, no one could. They could only stand and stare as the Seraph's pace began to quicken. Even though he wasn't there, Misato could almost hear Kiyoshi's yells of chastisement, knowing full well that he was right.
They were just as monstrous as the thing they fought.
So weak, so puny, how did you rise to become the world's dominant race?
Like a hunter unsheathing his knife to finish off a kill, Sachiel's energy blade extended from his hand.
By command of the Lord of Ash, and Sovereign of the Divine, I must take your life. Do not struggle, otherwise the dying will be slower. I would say you fought and fell with valour...but that would be a grotesque overstatement.
The Seraph charged.
Shinji felt his senses slip as he passed out from fear, filling his mind with fond memories of the one time in his life when he was happy.
Mother...
Practically upon his prey now, Sachiel stabbed down, an attack that would have split Ben Nevis in two.
But it didn't.
Instead, the blade of light stopped in its tracks, as a layer of orange lightning blocked it. And from beneath a shield that could not be broken by any weapon of man, a purple armoured face angled itself upwards, meeting the gaze of the Seraph.
A single eye burning white with rage.
"Unit 01 has reactivated, A-T field is up." Maya relayed.
There was an unsaid sigh of relief from almost everyone present. Save for two individuals standing above all the others, and one purple haired woman whose thoughts were still fixed on the wimpy young man who'd been thrown into her life.
"What about, Shinji-kun? Is he okay!?" Misato fought the urge to run over to one of the computer screens, fought the urge to try and make sense of all the numbers she didn't understand.
"Pilot's vitals unknown."
Sachiel quickly extended his other blade and lunged forward, attempting to get his foe's heart speared on it.
But once again, the A-T field blocked it. Despite buckling and bending a bit, it did not bow to slayer of Abax's will.
The Eva's inhuman gaze never withered or fell, but remained fixed on its opponent. The silent contest of wills between the eldritch behemoths continued for a few moments, before Evangelion Unit 01 opened its mouth, slowly but terrifyingly surely.
And roared.
"Spirits..." one of the members of control deck muttered.
The surge of flickering orange power hurled Sachiel through the air, the unfortunate Divine careering through a sky scraper. Whilst the dust settled on the dazed but utterly unharmed Seraph, Unit 01 slowly arose, only to fall on one knee as if unused to movement.
A purple hand helped the metal clad monster keep its balance, before its gaze set squarely on the Seraph once again.
A ghastly growl escaped its prosthetic and jagged lips, before Unit 01 thundered forward as Sachiel struggled to rise, still trying to shake himself out of his dazed state. A purple fist cracking his helm like porcelain, put an end to that.
Unfortunately said fist was hanging off Unit 01's broken left wrist, so there was a rather loud snap upon impact.
Although the Eva didn't seem to care.
Not having been able to put his wall of light back up in time, Sachiel was thrown into the rubble, with the fist still firmly planted in his face whilst the other purple hand had grasped a piece of steel beam and was attempting to hack out the red jewel in Sachiel's chest.
"We've won." Kozo sighed with relief, high above all else on the command deck as the staff below cheered.
"Perhaps..." Gendo remained thoughtful, keeping in mind from his younger days that a fight can go anyway at anytime. His intuition was soon proven right.
Your overconfidence is your end, Voor.
Blinding, pure, all mighty power, smashed into Unit 01's face, its own A-T field being barely capable of preventing the surge of energy from searing its head off.
It could not however, nullify the force of the blast.
It was now the Eva's turn to bring down an unfortunate building, a building complacent and rude enough to stand in the trajectory of a flying armoured eldritch abomination.
However, it seemed Unit 01 was far too angry to be bothered with such things as being hit in the face by an attack equivalent to a small solar flare.
Its inhuman growl would have been most unsettling for those residing in shelters deep below, were it not for Sachiel's, terrifying, ear splitting, alien shriek tearing through the dead of night.
It was even said that the residents of Osaka, felt something in the wind that day.
Having stood up to its full height, the Seraph extended its right energy blade to its fullest extent. Fixing its black gaze upon the one thing that stood between all life on Earth's extinction, Sachiel advanced, far more cautiously this time, closing the distance but being ready for a counter attack.
You were too quick to try and take the kill, Voor. Your enemy must be broken before you can truly beat him.
Unit 01 threw itself at the amphibian creature, only to roar in pain as the Seraph sidestepped and raked its blade across the Eva's purple armoured chest.
Only just managing to maintain its balance, Unit 01 quickly had to throw its head back to prevent the blade from slashing at its throat. The following minute or so was simply the Eva ducking, diving, and dodging as Sachiel made strike after strike with the precision of a world class swordsman.
Though slow and powerful, the Divine Heir did not give his foe any window to strike back, for he was constantly on guard.
You will not catch me with my blade down again. But...this is a very pleasant surprise indeed.
For Sachiel was elated to face a foe his equal. Whilst the enemy's various assaults were clumsy, the Seraph got the general impression his opponent knew what they were doing somehow.
The throw back of the head, the twisting of the body, the footwork, it was not the mark of a skittish individual, but a champion wrestler in some cases.
A strong foe and a good fight, now if only we had some ale, Voor!
And then, orange lightning curled around Unit 01's reeled back right fist, as Sachiel realised his foe was channelling its own wall of light into a punch.
Frantically thrusting out his left arm, throwing a wave of crackling orange power at his foe, Sachiel took a step back, knowing full well what a direct strike from such a power would do to him.
The resulting collision of pure energy flattened the local block of buildings, with the two combatants being hurled like rag dolls away from each other.
For a few minutes, it was almost like a pyroclastic flow had hit the city, the debris and ash having been thrown up into the air, trickling back down like a sombre rain. However, even in that dark and terrible gloom, three glowing objects, three moving glowing objects, the eye of Unit 01, and the now red gaze of Sachiel, were a great deal more than vaguely visible.
So much so the staff of NERV shivered before the display.
The monsters could see one another, for their vision far transcended our own. In the ash of ruined homes, they could finally take a correct look at their respective foes, after having circled around each other for a while.
Unit 01 then tilted its head, and raised its left arm to meet its cracked eye, flexing its fingers quite awkwardly. Raising its gaze to meet that of its foe, it seemed like the Eva was asking for permission to do...something.
The Seraph did nothing but wait.
And thus, through means unknown to even the science of this advanced age, Unit 01 regenerated its damaged flesh and bone. With that matter dealt with, it stretched out its arms in a sprinting stance.
And yet it behaved as if it were waiting for something, as if it wished for the Seraph to attend to whatever injuries it had.
Sachiel acknowledged this, having quickly and quietly regenerated its own broken and battered body, by snapping his legs together and extending both his blades, raising the right one to his bony helm.
All noise upon NERV's command bridge stopped. All talking, all relaying of information, all typing on touch screens, everything. For the eldritch abomination, supposedly unknowable to all mankind, had performed a fencer's salute.
Even Gendo Ikari, who kept his usual stoic expression, had quickly gone through everything he knew about the creatures which sought mankind's end. And he found nothing about a code of honour.
"The scrolls didn't say anything about this..." Kozo murmured.
"Indeed."
The two demi-gods charged each other again, at full strength and full power, Unit 01 sliding beneath Sachiel's right blade, then dancing around the other. The Seraph quickly lurched back from the incoming punch, with the purple fist missing him by a few metres. The Eva landed with surprising elegance in a kneeling position, before attempting to roll out of yet another slice from its opponent.
But it was not to be.
The purple monster howled in pain as Sachiel's blade seared through the already cracked part of its face plate. Had it not continued to roll, the Seraph's second downward strike would have ended the matter then and there.
But roll it did, until being safely out of Sachiel's range for a few crucial seconds, long enough to stand again. The blades quickly sizzled through the air as with expert swordsmanship, the Seraph made swipe after calculated swipe at his enemy's head.
Unit 01, despite rising from what seemed like total defeat with the wrath of ancient gods, was still on the back foot. It could not exploit its brute strength, it could only stay at a distance with its great speed, and even that advantage couldn't last long.
Sachiel feinted towards the Eva's chest plate, causing it to sidestep. Right into the path of his lower strike.
Unit 01 staggered and roared for what seemed like an eternity, after a blade of pure yellow energy had cut clean through its knee.
Collapsing to the ground, it could only stare upwards, somewhat helplessly at the Seraph's red gaze, both blades raised simultaneously in preparation to decapitate mankind's last hope.
You have fought well, Voor, the halls of the gods shall welcome you with open arms. Due to your valour, I shall grant you a warrior's death. It will be quick.
Sachiel's final attack happened in a heartbeat, too fast for the human eye to see.
However, it was not fast enough.
Two purple armoured hands, crackling with orange energy, reached up into the path of the blades, and caught them.
It may have been a trick of the imagination, but many of NERV's personnel could have sworn they'd seen shock on their enemy's face.
Hurricane like winds spiralled around the two monstrosities, as their A-T fields clashed together, twisting and turning as they tried to get around or neutralise the other.
Arcs of lightning jutted out, some ripping into already ruined buildings, others screaming off into the heavens. The wind had now cleared away all debris, the view of the battle was unclouded for all to see.
And then the orange light flickered out.
"They've cancelled out each other's A-T field...this is going better than I hoped..." Ritsuko muttered in a pleasantly surprised tone, before lighting a cigarette.
The arms of the Seraph and the Eva trembled with exertion, signifying this contest of pure strength was almost over.
This ends now!
Sachiel's head thrust forward, with nothing to bar its progress, in an attempt to knock the Japanese god machine off its balance. With both its arms occupied, Unit 01 had no way to stop it.
Instead, it bowed its head.
And thus the Seraph's head came down...right onto a purple horn.
The shriek of agony as the long thought useless appendage drove straight through bone and flesh, was one that would make even the most stout cover their ears as blood would flow from them with reckless abandon.
Desperately rearing back the Seraph lost all grip, but Unit 01 didn't. Strong hands grasped the Divine Heir's right arm, and with a knee firmly planted in its foe's chest, the Eva pulled.
And Sachiel's screams grew louder.
Collapsing on his back, royal blue blood gushing forth like a mighty river from the ruined stump that was once his arm, the Seraph attempted to rise again, in a shambling and completely disorientated manner.
One which would never have been fast enough, even if he succeeded.
His now detached right blade, still humming with energy, wielded by a furious titan, was driven straight through his heart and into the ground, pinning him in place. The red jewel in his chest shattered, as all bodily functions began to fail, a purple hand upon his chest keeping him in place.
Most impressive, Voor...most impressive. I did not think I would receive such a challenge from your kind. Truly I am glad to meet it. But know this...
The two creatures of eldritch lore locked gazes with one another, a low whimper escaping from Unit 01's mouth for reasons no one yet understood.
My brothers and sisters are as strong as me, some even stronger. And my father...you are but an insect to defy his rule... The Seraph's gaze began to darken, as it took its last breath.
Everyone...forgive me...for I am weak...
And thus, the Fourth Seraph died.
7:00pm,
"...retrieval successful, vital signs positive." A soft voice spoke over the radio as Shinji regained consciousness. He felt dazed, possessing no memory of whatever had just happened. But he could guess.
With the dead monster pinned to the ground beneath Unit 01, he could only imagine that somehow he'd won. Somehow he'd survived freezing up and blacking out.
He was being lifted, possibly by crane, as he could see both his Eva and the Seraph locked in a deathly embrace. It was strange...the Seraph had been impaled by one of its own arms...and Unit 01 had somehow fixed that wrist breakage.
Did it...act by itself...
There was a loud clank as a piece of the purple monster's head armour detached...showing something that made Shinji's blood run cold.
No circuitry, no robotics.
Just...flesh.
The area where it seemed had once been an eye, bubbled and boiled as a green orb grew out of it. A black iris eventually came into being, swivelling around for a few seconds.
"Heart rate increasing!"
"Oh shit he can see it! Cut the visual now!" Misato barked. But it was far too late.
The iris finished swivelling, and fixed its gaze on Shinji. Not on the entry plug in which he sat, but directly at him. Straight into his soul.
Moments after deep blue met sickly green, Shinji's ear-splitting shriek of pure terror echoed for a few moments, before consciousness slipped away.