Through the rain Koji drove his Land Cruiser over the muddy tops of hills as he raced toward the location Patrick had informed Kaji of earlier. His folding tablet was mounted on top of his dashboard with the approximate location marked on it as well as his own. Based on Kaori's earlier description of the road, Koji had driven to the old collapsed shrine near the top of Mt. Aso's summit and then headed due north. Within a few kilometers of driving through the pouring rain he saw the first of the torii gates alongside of a dirt road.
Determining that the road to the cult's base of operations was likely under observation for intruders, Koji didn't drive on the road itself but instead maintained a distance off-road of about five hundred meters through the rough area of the mountain. It was a bumpy drive and he had to force himself out of mud pools on a couple of occasions but Koji was still able to follow the road's path from afar and then saw the forest at the end of the trail. He hoped the rain was heavy enough so that whoever was watching wouldn't notice his Land Cruiser in the distance, as he stopped the SUV at the edge of the forest and then got out of the cabin to access his equipment in the back of the vehicle.
Carefully Koji maneuvered on foot toward where the driving road's path ended, darting between fir and pine trees to avoid being seen. He came close enough to see what the girl had described: a large opening for a cave within the forest itself, perhaps large enough to drive a truck through. He also saw two men in woodland-patterned camouflage at either side of the cave's opening.
Koji send a text message on his satellite radio confirming the location. Kaji himself replied, giving instructions to secure the opening. Koji then went to his equipment bag and pulled out his bow.
Using a traditional bow and arrow is difficult enough, and while a trained bowman can hit a target at fifty meters hitting one with strong winds and rain about was much more difficult. However Koji had been well-trained in the bow during his youth by his father in the days before Second Impact, and these skills he had retained over the years for just such an occasion as this. Finding a hiding place alongside of a large pine tree, Koji took a tungsten-coated arrow and nocked it, then silently drew his bow. He drew a breath and then let it out, then let fly the arrow.
The first arrowhead entered the guard through the forehead, making a neat "plop" sound as it struck, and the guard fell backwards. The second guard caught a glimpse of his mate going down, then swung up his assault rifle to find the shooter. He got as far as seeing a figure in a nearby tree before he received an arrow to the center of his chest.
The second guard didn't fall quickly, and staggered as he tumbled to his knees. He attempted to bring up his rifle on the man that was rushing him but found the bowman was both swift and strong as the larger man ripped the rifle from his arms and then swung it against his head. He went down with the blow, and then Koji followed up with a dagger for the kill.
After it was done Koji again messaged Kaji. OBJECTIVE 1 SECURED. He then walked to the cave entrance to see if there was any type of doorway. There was, a set of closed steel doors that were five meters across and that he figured was just barely enough space to drive a truck through. He needed to find a way to get the doors opened but before he did, Koji had one other quick task to carry out. Grabbing a small hockey puck-shaped object from his rucksack, Koji tossed the disk over to a clearing in the forest about ten meters away from where he stood.
In the cockpit of his Thunderbolt Kaji saw the message from Koji flash on his screen. OBJECTIVE ONE SECURED and smiled to himself.
The Ball is in play.
"Wing leader to all units," Kaji called out on his tactical communicator, "Target location is confirmed. All units converge on Map Point A and hold back at five thousand meters from target." The radio was then filled with call signs and acknowledgement of all of Alliance military and intelligence units that were part of the operation. In the rear seat of the Thunderbolt, Misato gave out her own mission instructions.
"EVA 01, JA 01," she ordered, "Get out of the water and move towards Objective A on the tactical map immediately." By this time both Evangelion Unit 01 and Jet Alone had arrived off the coast of Kagoshima, and both units were standing in the underwater wreckage of old Kagoshima city waiting for their cute to start the assault.
"Roger," said Shinji over the communicator, "on the way out."
"This is JA 01," called out Erin. "We're on our way."
EVA-01 was able to pull itself out of the water easily, climbing the underwater shoreline until it breached the surface. The rainstorm outside was still raging, with wind roaring against the EVA's skin as Shinji ascended a cliffside like a monkey climbing a tree. Even with a slower than average sync, Shinji didn't find this difficult to do albeit his movement was slower than he would have liked.
JA 01 had more trouble getting out of the water. Zummy had pushed the underwater jets at full speed to try and breach the surface, but had ended up at a sheer cliff face and Jet Alone with its weaker arms was unable to get a good enough grip on the cliffside rocks to pull itself out of the water completely. Instead they had to swim to another area a few kilometers to the north shore to find a beach slope. Fortunately, with the massive rainstorm there was still very poor visibility and JA 01 wasn't seen moving out of the water by anyone or anything around. Within a few more minutes Jet Alone was on the shore and marching north towards the summit of Mount Aso, and Unit 01 was on its way alongside it.
Inside Toji's tilt-rotor both Patrick and Asuka made sure they equipped properly for their part in the attack, both wearing body armor and with appropriate weapons and gear. Patrick had strapped his vest over his dress shirt and thought he still looked out of place wearing it, but it would have to do. He had his snub-nosed MP-5 in his hands, his Sig-Sauer holstered in his combat harness, and plenty of clips for both. Asuka herself had the more petite MP-7 model SMG and additionally two swords strapped onto the back of her harness.
There was a beeping and Toji went to check his communicator screen. "Guys, we got a message!" Both Asuka and Patrick leaned over the seats to see the screen.
"Opening secure. Using marker beacon to indicate position," Patrick said aloud.
"Does that mean they found the cave?" said Toji.
"Looks like it," answered Patrick.
"How the hell are we going to find it in this rain," countered Toji as he struggled with a giant gust of wind while flying, nearly rolling the tilt-rotor sixty degrees and tossing the cabin about before leveling off. "Assuming the storm doesn't kill us first."
"Here," said Asuka, tearing off a set of goggles from her combat harness. "Use this."
"Goggles?"
"Just put them on," she said in a tone of annoyance.
Toji quickly pulled off his headset and then strapped the goggles on. After adjusting to his eyes to the green tint of the infra-red scanner, he searched the area and then saw something nearby that flashed brightly. "I think I see something!"
"What is it?"
"Don't know, like some sort of flashing circle."
"That's it" Patrick said, "It's a landing beacon." Patrick looked out the window and saw just forest in front of them. Because the beacon only used infrared light, it was not visible to the naked eye. "Use your goggles and then put us down as close as you can."
"Ok, got it!"
Within a minute Toji had found a patch of open space next to the edge of the forest and hurriedly landed the tilt-rotor down, bouncing the wheels off the ground once until it firmly landed. Asuka and Patrick quickly opened the side doors and disembarked.
Patrick pounded on the pilot's window and Toji opened it. "Go find a hiding place," Patrick told him. "We'll call you when we need a pickup, so keep your ears and eyes open for us."
"Will do. Good luck in there!" Patrick didn't reply except to nod, and Asuka gave him a serious look. Toji then increased the throttle and quickly lifted the tilt-rotor up and away from the forest as the other two started to run inside.
Standing next to the cave opening was Koji, now with an HK416 rifle in his right hand and a flashlight in his left one. Koji gave three quick flashes of light and then Asuka replied with two slow ones and a short one in reply, a coded response to identify them as friendly. The group then convened at the edge of the cave.
"You're Koji-san?" Asuka asked.
"That would be me," he said with a grin. "You two were not quite what I expected for an advance party."
Patrick spoke for them both. "Let's just say we're highly invested in the outcome of this. Did you already go inside?"
"No, I just got the doors open. My job is to stay here and keep the escape route clear while you two get in and out. Once I know you're coming out I'll help you get past whatever they send after you and then call in for reinforcements. NERVs on the way now with the rest of their heavy gear."
"You mean EVAs?" Patrick asked.
"And maybe something else, too," Koji added. "The cave has a security system that used sensors to activate the doors. You'll need a hand getting in."
Patrick was confused. "But you said you're staying here to keep the escape route clear."
"Correct," Koji replied, then showed Patrick a ziplock plastic bag with something inside. "I mean to say that you'll need this hand!" Patrick looked at the ziplock bag and saw inside what Koji meant by a "hand:" A severed right hand was inside the bag. The boy took a step back. "Holy shit, did you cut that right off them?"
"Didn't have time to dig out the subdermal chips the guards have implanted," Koji explained with a smirk. He gave another ziplock bag with severed hand inside to Asuka, who narrowed her glance before grabbing it from him and tossing it in her rucksack. "Disgusting."
"Thank God they didn't put the chips inside their head," Patrick quipped. Asuka just glared at him and then started inside of the cave. "We're off," he told Koji. We'll try to keep this quiet but we might be coming out guns blazing if it all goes to hell in there."
"Prepared for anything," said the larger man, patting his rifle. "Good hunting, you two,"
"See you at the end," replied Patrick and he started into the cave.
Inside of the temple the cult's followers were gathered as the high priest stood on top of the platform at the far end, the giant red-eyed buddha seated behind him. Next to him was Rei, clothed in her silk robes and standing silently as the throng chanted.
The priest spread his arms wide and the followers stopped at once. Speaking to the crowd, he said in a loud voice. "Behold, your empress!"
"BEHOLD, OUR EMPRESS!"
"Behold, your goddess!"
"BEHOLD, OUR GODDESS!"
"Behold, your angel!"
"BEHOLD, OUR ANGEL!"
The priest smiled as the crowd of followers shouted in unison. "I give to you our key to a new world, a world where all that is corrupt will be put to justice, and all will be set right again." He looked at Rei, but she did not return his glance, instead staring stoically at the throng of followers standing in front of the platform. "We will transform this world as our goddess will transform herself, shedding off her old, corrupted flesh and renewing into her true and majestic form! Behold our Angel will transform before your eyes and you will see the power of heaven itself manifest in your presence!"
"BEHOLD, OUR ANGEL!" the crowd shouted again.
As the cult members continued to chant, Rei knew that her moment would come soon. She could feel her body becoming warmer as the LCL stabilizer had begun to wear off. While she did not know the exact time, she knew that soon her body would start to lose its shape, and pieces would start to break off as they did once before. Only this time there was no other Angel outside her that could put her back together. This time really would be the end. Her body would disintegrate, and her encapsulated soul inside would be re-planted into something different, and Rei Ayanami would finally cease to exist.
Hope, the girl had told me. Hope for what? Now is the moment. Or will I truly be unmade this time.
How ironic. Before I wanted to die, so many times. Now I only want to live. I…
Rei scanned the crowd in front of her for something familiar. A brief glimpse of someone. Red-framed glasses and blue eyes poked out of one hooded figure among the masses. She looked more carefully and saw that girl wink her right eye and smile at her.
Lusty-chan.
Thinking fast, Rei knew what she had to do. With her hands she quickly undid her obi and thrust off her silk kimono, letting it drop to the floor. The crowd in front suddenly stopped chanting, as Rei's slender, pale naked body was now standing in front of them. The priest looked over and wrinkled his forehead, wondering if he should do anything to stop her. Rei instead looked forward and raised her arms wide in an open gesture. The priest smiled to himself.
She is offering herself up. At least it's a peaceful end.
As her body began to glow, the hexagonal patters of an Absolute Terror Field began to appear in front of Rei. Within a moment the blue grid of light began to shine brighter and brighter, filling the entire platform with light. The light emanating from her increased in brilliance from blue, to white, to a brightness to intense that no one could look directly at it. Rei kept up the brightness, filling the entire temple with light.
Behind her, Rei felt a tug at her elbow. "Let's go," the girl's voice said. With intensity, Rei allowed her AT Field to extend to the entire length of the temple and she released a wave of rainbow-colored light. The image was so strong that the crowd, already unable to see directly at the platform, hid their faces to avoid the searing brightness that now came upon them. Then in an instant the wave of light was gone. There was nothing on the stage except the high priest, and a pile of silken robes.
Voices whispered among the crowd. "Did she disappear? Did she ascend to heaven?" The priest was however more concerned, and frantically looked around for Rei.
A crashing noise came from the back of the platform as a door slammed open, and only then did the leader realize he had been fooled. Pointing his finger towards the back of the temple, he shouted to the others "She's escaped! Get her!"
The race to the mountain took another twenty minutes moving through hillsides and valleys in the mountainous center of Kyushu island. With constant rain the ground was wet and muddy and even giants like the EVA and JA found the footing slippery. At one point JA actually slipped on the ground and tripped over power lines, landing face first on a hillside. Shinji brought over Unit 01 to assist.
"Hey," Shinji called out to the crew inside JA 01. "Do you need help?"
Inside of JA, Erin stood at one control panel as Zummy worked with the controls to try and right JA back up. "Do we?" she asked Zummy. But the boy was determined not to let the robot get out of hand and waived her off, instead he focused on the hand controls and altered the power flow to JA's limbs to provide him more traction. Within another minute he managed to upright Jet Alone and it back on its feet.
"We're…we're good!" David told the others. "On the move!" Zummy pushed the throttle and JA picked up speed as it ambled northward. Erin watched as Zummy concentrated on the controls, then told Shinji. "up and running. Thanks for the offer."
In another five minutes the approached the summit and neared the objective point, the volcano's cone was now visible to the units. Now that they were close to the target, Erin called in their location. "JA 01 to Wing leader. We have visual on Objective A."
"Wing leader to JA 01," spoke Misato. "Move to target and then initiate as we planned it."
"Got it! Here we go!" Erin then turned to Zummy. "We're clear to go in. No sign of the other Jet Alone or anything else out there."
"Okay," said Zummy, "I'm putting us in there," He then ran JA as fast as he could over the summit and then towards the volcanic cone that was the identified location of the cult's base. As Zummy approached their assault point, Erin said out loud. "Volcanos again?! Do they ever think of something else?"
"What do you mean by that?" Zummy asked.
"It's just that SEELE never seems to have a whole lot of originality," she quipped.
Through the pouring rain JA pushed to reach its target, still not seeing any enemies but now the pilots could see that the open volcanic cone stored buildings and other apparatus inside, and that there were several impressions along the mountainside that indicated a possible giant doorway. Erin wondered if that was where they kept the other JA. "Go over there!" she pointed out to Zummy. He then piloted the robot to just above the side of the volcano cone where the giant grooves were cut into the mountain.
"That looks like a doorway," said Zummy.
"That's where they're hiding it!" Erin then called in again to Misato. "We're here!
Kaji had flown the Thunderbolt to within three miles of the base and then set it down in an open area. Still with rain pouring all around, he kept an eye out for any surprise visitors while Misato coordinated the next step of the plan.
"Wing leader to all units," she called out. "All units land outside five thousand meters. Be sure you're not in the air until ordered to do so," Again, multiple flying units responded affirmatively, as Kaji communicated with the NERV rail command post with Burke and Satsuki.
"We're near the objective point," he reported. "We've ordered all of the flying units to go to ground, and JA 01 is there now with EVA 01 close by, Ready to initiate."
Inside of the EVA 500's command post car, Commander Burke asked Satsuki. "All of our units are confirmed out of the air and stationary?" he asked.
"Yes, sir" she said. "Also I've ordered all drones out of the effect zone. All clear." With that Burke was satisfied.
"Hit it" he ordered.
Misato conveyed the order. "Wing leader to JA 01. Initiate now!"
"Roger!" said Erin and she turned the switch on her console. There was a loud hum that came from the Jet Alone fuselage below them, a hum that turned into a louder screech that rang the whole control room.
"That's the EMP?" asked Zummy. Erin nodded and waited for the weapon to reach full power.
On the main display for JA, the screen suddenly flashed EMP BLAST and the whole robot shook. As it did so, a bright flame-blue wave of energy spread out from Jet Alone in all directions. The wave of energy hit the rain outside and made a bizarre-appearing cut through the wind like it was lightning moving sideways, and then coalesced into a nearly-perfect blue set of circles that spread out into the distance. On the ground there were intermittent sparks where electronic equipment had been set up, and inside of the crater there was a glowing rain shower of electric static followed by sparks everywhere.
"What was that?!" the high priest demanded from one of his minions as lights and power cables suddenly burst into flames around them.
The woman was about to answer when another man in green camouflage came running towards them. "The power circuits are blown!" he told them. "They've used our EMP system against us!"
The high priest looked up and out of the crater's edge and got a glimpse of the towering figure of Jet Alone through the opening, visible through the rain and low clouds and now illuminated by trace blue-tinted energy. To him, this was a most unwelcome development.
"What's that doing here? Don't tell me they've found a way to use it?" he growled to the others. "Where's the second unit?"
"It's already been deployed," the woman told him. "It was out patrolling on the far side of the mountain when this happened."
"NERV is coming," said the high priest. "mobilize our defenses accordingly." The woman nodded and pulled out a radio and started barking orders, while the high priest turned to the other man.
"Where's our other unit?"
Both Erin and Zummy watched as the blue energy wave dissipated, then Erin reported back to Misato. "Wing leader, this is JA 01. EMP attack launched and successful."
"Good work," came Misato's voice. "Stand your ground and look out for the enemy, they're bound to show up soon. Unit 01 is approaching and will be able to help once they reach the mountaintop."
"Roger," Erin said. She then turned to Zummy, "Any sign of the other JA?"
"No, I haven't seen it," he said. "It wouldn't come up on radar according to what they said about its stealth abilities, but it's really hard to see through the storm even now." Both searched the sky visually, waiting for Shinji to show up in Unit 01. Erin noticed some movement in the air but instead of a giant robot it was several aircraft, all from the Alliance military and consisting of Thunderbolt gunships and Thunderchief troop carriers that were now beginning their assault on the cult's base.
"You don't think it got stuck inside, do you?" Zummy asked Erin.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean those big doors carved into the side of the volcano. That's probably how it gets in and out. After we hit the EMP maybe all of the electrical controls shorted out so they can't open the doors."
"Yeah but," she said, "why do that when you can just climb in and out of the top hole of the volcano. Or maybe it doesn't come out through there."
"It's not like you can hide a hundred-meter tall robot anyway," said Zummy. "Although they did manage to actually do that I guess."
"Well, Visibility is terrible here," said Erin. "The storm's really bad outside. If we just ran into the thing we probably wouldn't even see it until it hit us."
The robot suddenly shook violently, and both of the children were thrown to the floor. Zummy climbed back up to his controls as Erin also jumped back on her feet. Zummy then swung JA's head to look around and then he saw it looming in his display and taking up the entire screen.
"J-J-Jet Twin!" he stuttered.
"Oh shit," whispered Erin.
Jet Twin again rammed into Jet Alone at full force, pushing it back again and forcing both pilots inside to grab on to their control stations tightly to avoid being thrown off their feet.
"He's ramming us!" cried Zummy. "Use the rifle!"
Erin used her controls to maneuver the Pallet Rifle to bear down on Jet Twin, but the other robot didn't give her a chance to aim as it again rammed into Jet Alone. Erin instead let off a burst of fire but it went wildly off target.
"Why is it trying to ram us?" shouted Zummy.
"The AI's probably figured that's the best way to take us out!" replied Erin as she tried again to use the Rifle while Zummy pushed back on the controls to avoid being hit again by Jet Twin.
"JA 01, this is wing leader," called Misato on the speaker. "What's going on?"
"Engaging Jet Twin now," Erin replied. "Could use a bit of help here."
"EVA-01 on the way to you," Misato replied, "They're almost there!"
Erin again set off another burst round as Zummy maneuvered to get more distance between them and Jet Twin. This time Erin's aim was true and she hit Jet Twin several times, but all of the rounds bounced off the robot's titanium alloy hull.
"Oh, great!" she cursed. "bounced right off him."
Jet Twin immediately used its two lasers to shoot directly at Jet Alone, hitting several sensor points on the robot's head and causing one of them to explode. The pilots inside again felt the robot shake hard, and the onscreen display flashed LASER ATTACK HULL DAMAGED. Erin tried a fourth volley of shots and despite it being well-aimed around Jet Twin's head nearly all of them bounced off.
"Gun is useless," she told David.
"Can we do EMP again?" asked the boy.
"Not with all of our guys out here now," Erin replied.
"So what do we do now?"
The image of Jet Alone again loomed large on their display, and it was running right towards them.
"How about…RUN!" she said. Zummy immediately swiveled the controllers and pushed Jet Alone out of Jet Twin's way, and then pushed up the throttle to take it to a sprint.
"That works for me," he said, and then they mockingly called out in unison "RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!"
David pushed the robot to gain more speed to gain distance between JA and Jet Twin, and even dropped the Pallet Gun in an effort to lighten the load. But Jet Twin still had the advantage and continued to close the gap between them quickly. Despite their best efforts they were rammed again, this time from behind.
The blow was so violent that Jet Alone was sent tumbling down the mountainside, rolling over ledges and crevices. The two pilots inside were bumped around the cabin, both of them holding onto steel railings for dear life to avoid being smashed against the bulkheads.
Above them, Jet Twin started to aim its laser at Jet Alone in order to finish it off. However it sensed something present to its left and swiveled around to see what it was. Now in full view was a hundred and twenty foot purple and green giant that delivered a giant fist through its bulkhead.
"EVA-01," Shinji called out, "Engaging Jet Twin."
Unit 01 grabbed Jet Twin by its head and then punched it another three or four times in the faceplate. The robot first responded by using lasers to try and singe the EVA, but Shinji put up the AT Field quickly and the laser shots diverted, bouncing off the hexagonal energy field that the EVA projected in front. Jet Twin tried the lasers another two times, each time with the same result, and then Unit 01 gave it a swift kick to the place between its legs. The giant robot fell over with a loud creaking sound.
"Enemy down," Shinji reported calmly.
"I have it on sensors," came Misato's voice over the audio. "I'm still reading a power source, Does it look like it's still operational?"
"It's running lights are still on," said Shinji. "Do you want me to just kill it?"
"Be careful," warned Misato. "It's got a nuclear reactor on board. We need to immobilize it so we can get the reactor turned off safely. So hold onto it until…wait a minute, what is that?"
"What is it?" Shinji asked, and then he saw movement at the outside edge of his plug's wraparound display.
"Look out!" shouted Misato. "It's another EVA!"
Shinji poised Unit 01 to turn around to see what the threat was and saw another giant image approaching fast in the rain. The EVA was milky white and faceless with an oversized mouth that gaped out with rows of teeth. It was climbing out of the giant doors on the side of the volcano, ripping out the steel doors in rage as it tossed them to the side in its escape.
"It's a Harpy!" Shinji called out.
"When it rains it pours," sighed Misato. "Engage it!"
The last thing I wanted to see today was you. "Okay!" Shinji pulled out the Lance of Longinus copy that was slung on the EVA's back and prepared for what he knew would happen, as the Mass Production EVA roared and immediately bound towards him, both hands up and ready to claw.
The cave leading to the crater's opening was perhaps a thousand meters in distance from end to end, so Patrick and Asuka could cover it in just a few minutes. There were small LED lights to mark a pathway but otherwise no other indications of technology inside, although there was a well-worn path on the bottom that indicated vehicles made regular trips through the cave.
Reaching the end of the tunnel the two of them saw another steel gate with two doors closed. Silently they crouched and moved to the side of one of the doors where the opening sensor was.
"Hey, Asuka," Patrick whispered. "Can you lend me a hand?" She narrowed her glance at him and his horrible attempt at gallows humor. Sighing, she grabbed the ziplocked severed hand from her rucksack and tossed it forcefully at Patrick. "Even now I still don't get what she sees in you," said Asuka. Moving the hand over the sensor to trigger it, Patrick just told her "I think it's just because I can make her laugh."
The steel doors started to slide open slowly, and both prepared for their entry. Patrick pulled out his Sig-Sauer, now with a silencer attached. Asuka had her katana and wakizashi drawn and ready. The doorway opened completely and two camouflaged guards stepped out cautiously, peering into the darkness of the case to see what had opened the door.
In an instant Asuka struck, darting from the side wall with her swords in the air, slashing at the nearest guard. Patrick stood and fired two rounds into the second guard's head and face. Both men went down quickly and the two of them grabbed each by their boots and dragged them out of sight into the case, then sprung through the now-closing steel doors before they shut again.
Patrick thought to himself that the intrusion came a bit too easy and wondered what else was going on. He looked at the interior of the cavern, which amounted to a hollowed-out volcanic caldera perhaps two or three kilometers in diameter. "What the hell is it with these people and volcanoes?" he asked Asuka.
"They've seen too many spy movies if you ask me," she replied, sheathing her swords. Grabbing her rucksack, she pulled out a square plastic box about less than a foot wide.
"What's that?" Patrick asked.
"Remote-controlled Mine," she told him, showing him the remote. She used a gum-like plastic to stick the box to the steel door near the bottom, then make sure it was stationary and well-attached. They searched around again, noticing that the interior of the volcano where they were didn't actually have any visible people inside of it.
"Where did everyone go?"
"Mandatory terrorist union meeting?" Asuka mused.
"That or it's Taco Tuesday," answered Patrick.
The silence was broken by an explosion, followed by the sounds of gunfire coming from the direction of a large wooden temple on the far side of the caldera. Patrick turned to Asuka. "I thought you said we were the advance guard?"
"Can't you tell who that is?" she replied in annoyance. "That four-eyed hussy got the jump on us!" They both ran in unison towards the temple and the sound of the gunfire.
Mari and Rei took cover behind a steel shelter as they tried to avoid being spotted. All around the area white-robed cultists fanned out with a few camouflage-wearing guards on the hunt for them.
Mari still had on the white robes she wore to infiltrate the temple, while Rei was completely undressed and as usual was unembarrassed about it. As she checked her pistol Mari looked at Rei with a wry smile.
"Why is it whenever there's something important going on, you're always naked?"
Rei looked at her with astonishment, not really sure about how to answer the question.
They heard footsteps and the two of them leaned against the shelter to avoid being spotted. Mari grabbed a small cylinder and twisted the switch, and a two-foot telescoping steel shaft sprung out of either end. Around the corner of the shelter a female white-clad cultist turned around and pointed a finger, and Mari immediately slammed her on top of the head with her fighting rod. The woman collapsed to the ground.
Mari reached down and grabbed the unconscious woman by the head and dragged her over the corner and out of sight. She then rolled her over and stripped off her white robe, handing it to Rei. "There, get yourself decent." Rei quickly put on the robes as Mari checked the woman's body for any gear she could appropriate. She was still crouched down when the voices of several others suddenly shouted "THERE THEY ARE!" A group of cultists and soldiers about twenty yards away all pointed at their hiding place.
"Oh bugger," Mari sighed. Instinctively she reached into a pocket and pulled out a grenade, and then quickly tossed it towards the crowd. The grenade exploded in mid-air, showering the group with hot shrapnel and the mass of pursuers all fell down in a large cloud of grey smoke. "Let's go" Mari said to Rei as she grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her away.
The two made it as far as a nearby parked truck. Mari had the idea that she could get into the truck's cabin and then drive their way out of the output through the cave entrance, Unfortunately both of them were spotted nearly as soon as they reached the vehicle, and gunfire erupted from one group of pursuers, and then another. Mari and Rei both fled to the rear of the truck.
"They're using bullets!" Mari said with mock distain. "That sort of ruins things. I thought they'd be more careful with you nearby." She then pulled out her own pistol and fired two spreads of bursts on a group of soldiers that was approaching from one side, taking down all four men. Mari then rolled back to take cover behind the truck.
She looked at Rei and told her "this might be a tight spot, just hang on." Mari quickly reloaded as Rei watched around them, and then peeked around the corner. A burst of gunfire again came and bullets ricocheted against the truck's fuselage, and Mari moved back behind cover again.
"A very tight spot," she said aloud.
A second pair of pursuers came from the other side of truck and Mari quickly jabbed one in the stomach with her fighting rod, then flung the rod into the face of the other. As both fell down she pulled out her pistol and shot two rounds into each soldier and then dove back behind the truck. Now surrounded on two or perhaps three sides, Mari's escape plan was disintegrating.
"A bit too tight," she told Rei. Rei didn't reply to her however, as her attention was fixed to something nearby. Mari turned to see what it was, pistol at the ready when two people rushing them slid down to the ground on either end of them.
"Hi, there!" said Patrick. Rei's eyes went wide and she gasped. "Miss me?"
Asuka was on now on the far end of the edge of the rear of the truck on the other side of Mari, and quickly poked out with her MP-7, firing a long burst to suppress another group of enemies. "I see this is another fine mess you've gotten us into to," she told Mari.
"I'm actually pleased to see you," Mari replied. "I was getting worried there for a moment."
"We've got control over the cave," Patrick told Mari. "Just need to get you guys away from here and then we're out" Rei turned around and saw Asuka. "You…you've escaped?" she told her in surprise.
"They had us both for a few hours, but we got out," Asuka told her. Rei was relieved, now knowing that the cult had not told her the complete truth.
For another half-minute the three fighters continued to return gunfire and fend off attacks by the cult but the group of enemies outside was now becoming larger despite the casualties inflicted by Mari, Asuka, and Patrick.
As Patrick shot off another set of bursts onto yet another approaching group of cultists armed with machetes, his watch buzzed and he looked at it.
00:00
He glanced over to Rei, who was crouched next to him, her hands on his back as she took cover behind him. "Come on," he told her as he turned around, and reached into his pocket to grab the stabilizer syringe.
"Cutting it close," he said and she gave a small smile. But as Patrick pulled out the syringe to apply it, a stray bullet struck the container, shattering and sending glass flying everywhere. Both Patrick's and Rei's faces went into expressions of shock.
OH NO. "SHIT!" Patrick screamed. He had not carried a backup stabilizer with him. Rei's face went into a grimace of sadness.
Oh, no. She thought to herself. Not now. Please not now.
I want to live.
Patrick didn't know what to do, and could only embrace her instead. I'm so sorry. I failed you after all.
Rei turned around after something tapped her neck and saw Mari. She had placed the spare stabilizer syringe against Rei's jugular vein and quickly pushed in the dose. "You two are sooo dramatic," she said as she finished the injection and then tossed out the empty dispenser.
"Are we done now?" Asuka growled as she fought off another group of cultists approaching from the right.
"Let's get the fuck out of here," replied Patrick. "Too bad we don't have better cover!"
Rei thought to herself about what was necessary at this moment. Seeing the cave entrance in the distance, she knew that was the pathway out, and she knew there was something she could do to help. Without saying anything she stood up and walked towards the left side of the truck.
"Rei, what are you doing?" Patrick shouted, but she continued moving towards the cultists.
Does she think she can hold them off? Patrick wondered as he rushed to get a hold of her. Rei however stood silently and stared at the enemies all around, and then a wide, glowing blue and yellow hexagonal grid suddenly appeared in front of her. The grid extended from the truck all the way to another piece of large machinery about twenty meters away, and provided all of the cover the group needed to relocate.
The cultists warily stepped back from the AT Field as Patrick, Mari, and Asuka ran from the truck to the yellow-painted machine. Patrick grabbed Rei by the arm and pulled her along, and as he did so both Mari and Asuka opened fire on the group from behind, bringing down many of the thugs all at once.
Again taking cover, this time behind the large yellow-painted machine, the group quickly worked out what needed to happen next.
"How were you planning on getting out of here?" asked Mari.
"There's a tunnel at the south end," Patrick told her. "Mister Koji's inside keeping it open for us, hopefully." Mari looked at the cave entrance from where they were, another thirty yards to the left. It would require another mad dash to reach the exit and there were already new soldiers posted at the doors.
"You'll need a distraction then," she said. "Let me take care of this bunch, you go on and get her out of here."
Patrick knew what that meant. "Hey! We're coming to get you out too!"
She smiled at him and gently patted his cheek. "Don't worry about me, darling. You've still got your main job to do and so do I so don't let me hold you back."
"But Lusty, there's no way that you're gonna face these guys all by yourself!"
"Don't you trust me?" she asked, this time with a half-serious expression. "I've got more than a few surprises left, so don't muck things about. Go on, get going!" she said. Patrick gave a worried glance to Rei and Asuka, and then closed his eyes and sighed. "Don't. I'm not going to let you…" But Mari didn't wait for Patrick to finish the sentence. Instead she tossed a grenade to the closest group of enemies that was approaching and then charged into the smoke with her fighting stick in her hands, screaming as she went. In another second she was no longer visible.
"Stupid Brit," said Asuka under her breath as her and the others watched Mari. "Get her out of here," she told Patrick as she referred to Rei. "I'll take care of Four-eyes."
"I want to see both of you again," Patrick said.
"I paid you back," Asuka told him, "Now I clear up my debt with her." She reached into her pocket and pulled out the mine detonator and quickly turned the switch. To their left where the cave doors were, there was a giant explosion. Asuka then tossed the detonator and then got up from her crouch behind the machine, then charged after Mari into the dissipating smoke cloud from her grenades. Patrick didn't bother to watch her go, he was already running to the cave, and Rei was running along with him.
Erin and Zummy rolled down the mountain in JA, still hanging onto dear life from the cockpit railing. Finally Jet Alone took a big bounce and landed on a crevice face down in muddy soil. Both pilots collapsed onto the capsule wall as they recovered from their ordeal.
"Are we still on-line?" Erin asked. David grappled with the railing to pull himself up and study the control panel. "Power and motor functions still in the green," he said. "What about weapons?"
"We lost our Pallet Gun up there," Erin reported. "Besides EMP we only have the active missile system, and that's probably useless against Jet Twin."
"JA 01, JA 01," Misato's voice called out. "Are you okay?" Erin replied back "Yeah, we're just face down in the mud here."
"Get back up the mountain, now! Unit 01 needs help!"
"Against Jet Twin?" Erin asked.
"Against a Harpy," Misato answered.
Erin paused at that. Jet Twin was at least mechanical, and could be defeated through normal means of combat. But a Mass Production EVA was another matter. Jet Alone, despite being powerful in its own right, didn't have an AT Field and would be vulnerable against an actual EVA. But if Unit 01 was in trouble they couldn't stand idly by either. This battle was getting worse by the minute, she thought.
"Okay, we're on our way," she said. Erin turned to Zummy, "Shinji's in trouble."
"I heard," said the boy, "But do we really stand a chance against an Evangelion?"
"Well, you wanted to pilot," Erin said with a broken smile. "This is what we face."
"Oh, hell," said David. "I didn't want to live all that long anyway." He then pulled on the two control sticks and did his best to upright JA.
If it has been a "normal" battle in normal times, Shinji would have made short work of the Mass Production EVA. But with a sync rate close to single digits, everything he did was slow and sluggish while the Harpy had the advantages of reflexive speed. After failing several attempts to impale the Harpy with his spear, the enemy had grabbed onto the lance and now both of them were pulling on it for control. On Shini's wrap-around plug display, the faceless head of the Harpy loomed large, it's rows of teeth highly visible as its mouth was wide open.
"This really sucks!" growled Shinji as he wrestled for control. Trying to get some sort of angle on the Harpy, Shinji tried a kick into its shins but found the other EVA to be able to withstand that without budging. It then put more muscle into pulling the spear out of his control and pushed on it further, knocking Unit 01 on her back.
Shinji grabbed the actuators and groaned as he pushed them forward as hard as he could, trying his best to gain control and rip off the lance from his opponent, but the EVA was matched with him for strength as well as speed. He worried he might not actually make it through this time.
This is bad, he thought. If it gets the lance he can impale me and then strike the core, and then it's all over. But I don't have an advantage for strength or speed. What do I have left? He thought about it and came up with a plan. "Misato," he asked, "Where's JA?"
"On the way up!" she said. "Unit 01, wait for JA to arrive and then break off combat. We'll need to regroup and go at this again."
"This one's really strong, Misato-san," Shinji countered back. "If we let up," he groaned as the Harpy continued to put pressure on Unit 01, "He'll go after everyone else. We have to stop him now!"
"We'd use an N2 if we could," she said out loud. But with all of our troops on the ground not to mention Rei, Asuka, Patrick and Mari, we couldn't risk harming them in using one.
"I have an idea," said Shinji, "but I need JA to come help."
"Hang on! They're almost there!"
Jet Alone was indeed rushing back up the mountainside, it's arms flailing alongside wildly as David picked up the speed of the robot in the climb. "Unit 01, we're nearly there," Erin called out. They could see that the Harpy had Unit 01 pinned on the ground and they were both struggling for control.
"What do we do," Zummy asked Erin. "Ram it," she replied back. "It worked for Jet Twin."
"Got it. Ramming speed it is!" He pushed the throttle forward as far as it would go, and headed straight for the white monster on the top of the mountain.
Shinji's and Unit 01's strength had nearly given out, as the Harpy managed to get a better grip on the lance and was pulling with all of its might. When Shinji saw JA 01 approach at a run however, he decided now was the time. He suddenly let go of the lance.
The Harpy flew backwards as its overmatched strength lifted up the weapon once Unit 01 released it and it lost its footing, flailing backwards as it held the lance in both of its hands. It was then when Jet Alone reached the summit. Zummy piloted the robot head first, running right into the side of the unsuspecting EVA.
While Jet Alone didn't really have strength in its spindly mechanical arms like an EVA did, it did have lots and lots of bulk, and Evangelion or no the laws of physics still applied. The Harpy was pushed out and down the hill, losing grip of the lance as it tumbled to the ground. Jet Alone then stopped its charge and bent over to pick up the lance from the ground.
"What's this?" asked Zummy.
"Lance of Longinus," said Erin. "Hang onto it, we might need it!"
The Harpy however recovered quite quickly and was now again back on its feet, Seeing what had flanked him and pushed him off, the Harpy immediately roared and then bounded straight at Jet Alone.
"Shields up!" reflexively called out Erin.
"What shields?!" said a surprised Zummy. "All this thing has is armor!"
I forgot. "Oh damn."
Erin tried to bring up the lance to repel the Harpy but the speed of the monster was too overwhelming and it closed the distance swiftly. Zummy tried to push on the throttles again but this time the Harpy dodged the ramming attack and instead grabbed Jet Alone's left arm, ripping it violently from its socket. Both Zummy and Erin cried out from the shock of the attack.
"Oh God, we're done for!" said David as he saw the Harpy roar again at them. Both of them screamed as they then saw Unit 01 push the Harpy out of the way.
"I'll get this one," Shinji told them on audio. "Go after Jet Twin, make sure it's out of the way."
"You'll need this!" said Erin as Zummy tossed the Lance with JA's only remaining arm. Unit 01 grabbed it out of the air.
"Thanks!" said Shinji, and he went back to fighting the Harpy on the mountaintop as JA turned and searched for Jet Twin.
Jet Twin wasn't far away. While both Unit 01 and JA had been fighting the Mass Production EVA, Jet Twin had been righting itself back on its feet and was again mobile. Once it detected JA, the other robot charged and fired its lasers as it did so.
Erin saw the oncoming robot ahead of them on the display as the fuselage of JA buffeted from the laser strikes on its hull. "Here he comes again," she said.
"This time we don't just let him charge us," growled Zummy. "Can you find the Pallet Gun?"
Erin searched the display to try and locate where the giant rifle was dropped on the ground. "There!" she called out as she pointed to the screen. The rifle wasn't far, about a hundred meters away.
"But that thing's useless against Jet Twin," she said.
"I think I know how to beat him," replied Zummy.
The mine had blown the steel cave doors wide open, and the two of them leaped over bodies laying at the front to get through the entrance. They dashed as fast as they could through the dimly-lit cave, tripping over rocks a few times in their haste to reach the exit on the other end. Patrick could hear shouting on the other side. He quickly turned his head to see a large crowd of white-clad men and women racing towards them, and they sounded very, very angry.
"KOJI!" Patrick shouted to the other end of the cave. "WE ARE COMING IN HOT!"
In the distance in front of them they heard a voice. "Got you, boss! Over here!" Patrick turned up as much speed as he could while still making sure Rei didn't fall behind. She kept up with him however, leaping over rocks and stones on the cave floor on her way forward. In a few more seconds they reached the other agent, who had his assault rifle ready in his hands.
"I already called the bird," he said, referring to Toji's tilt-rotor. "He's waiting outside. I'll hold them off here! Go!"
Patrick did as he was told and sprinted to the end of the cave, Rei following closely. Within a few more seconds they were in daylight, the rain still coming down inside of the forest. Behind him he could hear gunfire and lots of it coming from the cave. In front was Toji's tilt-rotor, with both rotors spinning at full-speed, waiting in a clearing about twenty yards away.
Almost there.
The last twenty yards was an outright sprint as Patrick rushed to the aircraft. Rei stumbled downward as she tried to keep up, and Patrick turned to quickly pick her up off the ground. He didn't look back at the cave, but instead held her by the arms and pulled her to the rear doors of the tilt-rotor. Opening it up, he pushed Rei inside first then jumped in, and then slammed the door. Immediately Toji pushed the controls and brought the aircraft vertically upward.
"Ayanami! It's good to see you! Where's Asuka?" Toji asked.
"Still in there," shouted Patrick. "Mari wouldn't leave!" Patrick leaned over the seat and grabbed a headset, so he could better speak to Toji over the aircraft noise. "I need you to get Rei safe and then we go back for them!"
"I don't think you need to bother with that," Toji told him, pointing to the sky around them. As he flew the tilt-rotor up and over the dormant volcano where the cult had their hiding place, Patrick and Rei looked out the windows and saw several other aircraft, all of them from the Alliance, either Thunderbird or Thunderchief V/STOL assault craft. Some were landing inside of the crater and disgorging out Alliance commandoes inside of the base. But even more significant, there were now four giants towering over the volcano itself, locked in combat. The two of them watched as the purple-and-green colored EVA Unit 01 grapple with a white, faceless Mass Production EVA, while a pair of Jet Alones fought each other on the opposite side of the crater.
"Onii-chan," Rei said as she saw Unit 01, as she realized that Shinji was piloting.
"Is that another Jet Alone?" Patrick asked.
"One of those is our Jet Alone," replied Toji, leaving Patrick to wonder what else he'd missed while out searching for Rei.
"I'm getting you two out of here," Toji said to them. "Orders from the top, so just sit back and enjoy the ride home." With that Patrick settled back in his seat. Rei had put on a headset and leaned back. The two of them looked at each other and tears started coming from Rei's eyes.
"You're okay, now," Patrick reassured her, taking her hand and squeezing it gently.
"But…" Rei choked out, "but this is my fault! If I hadn't tried to make contact with them, none of this would have…"
"Sssshh," said Patrick. "None of that matters now."
"But it does! So many people are hurt because of me. So many bad things have happened," she said with wavering emotion in her voice. "I was so wrong, I…" Patrick didn't wait for her to say anything more, but instead leaned in and gave her a long kiss on the lips until she stopped trying to talk. He released the kiss and then looked at her, smiling.
"You're human," he told her. "Isn't that what you wanted all along?"
Rei couldn't say anything further, her face blushed red with crying. She instead leaned over to Patrick and let her tears go while he tightly embraced her as they flew away from the battle.
Jet Alone moved to where the rifle had dropped and Zummy used the remaining right arm to scoop it off the ground as Jet Twin closed in on them. He then ordered "Erin, fire the missiles!" Erin immediately did so, firing off all forty-eight from their mounts inside of JA's fuselage. All four dozen missiles immediately homed in on the giant Jet Twin and raced towards it.
Jet Twin did nothing to really stop the missile flight: it's onboard AI knew the missiles wouldn't harm the unit, and indeed all of the active missile units exploded on the surface of the robot's armor in big, noisy and smoky blasts, none of which did much to Jet Twin except scratch the exterior surface. However with all forty-eight missile warheads exploding at once the robot was buried under a giant grey pillar of smoke, and for a few seconds it's vision was obscured. That was enough time for David to set up his next move with Jet Twin.
The smoke cleared and Jet Twin's head swiveled to re-acquire its target. What it couldn't react against until it was too late was Jet Alone swinging its Pallet Gun with its only remaining good arm and swiftly smashing it behind the kneecaps of the robot's legs. With one good swift hit, Jet Twin stumbled and fell on its shins.
Now with a height advantage Zummy rammed Jet Twin and pushed it onto it's back with the force of Jet Alone's own massive weight. The kneecaps of the other robot popped open with explosive force as they were hyperextended beyond their normal moveable range. Jet Alone then again used the Pallet Rifle as a club, smashing it against the front sensor array of the robot's giant head.
Jet Twin didn't go down completely without a fight as it continued to shoot lasers into Jet Alone as it attacked. Each blast shuddered the hull and eventually breaks in the surface started to appear. On the front screen, both of JA's pilots saw the warning: HULL BREACH
"He's starting to punch through," said Erin.
"So am I. Can you pump up the EMP again?"
"You're going to use EMP on JA? He's shielded against that!"
"Not if I can get an opening," said David. He continued to shove on his controls, each impact of the Pallet Gun against the weaker metal of Jet Twin's faceplate sensor array causing larger and larger cracks on its surface.
"Erin, shift the EMP to 90% electrical impulse. Can you do that?"
"Yeah, I got that." Erin used her own control panel to alter the EMP wave's output, now understand exactly what Zummy had in mind. "It's gonna be like a big, giant lightning rod!"
"Almost there…" The hull vibrations were getting louder now, and another warning came on the screen. EXTERIOR SURFACE TEMPERATURE CRITICAL. The lasers were wearing down JAs forward armor.
With one final swift strike, Zummy's last attack with the butt of the Pallet Gun smashed open the front of the sensor cowling on Jet Twin's face, exposing the inner workings of the robot. He then shoved the Pallet Gun barrel directly through the opening. "NOW!"
Erin hit the switch and Jet Alone's EMP was again triggered. Instead of a large wave motion like before, this time JA's EMP energy was directly focused through the length of its body as tentacles of brightly glowing electricity ran all up and down the unit. As Erin pushed the power level upward, the electrical impulses increased and lightning bolts formed from Jet Alone and followed it down every limb, with one large one going down its arm, through the rifle, and directly inside of Jet Twin. The electrical charge lasted for several seconds, the brightness of the power was blinding bright to both David and Erin as they averted their eyes from the display. The hull of JA shook vigorously and alarm klaxons sounded all throughout the control room. Both of them screamed.
And then everything was suddenly quiet.
Zummy shook his head and looked up at the display. What he saw was Jet Twin's open faceplate, now burned to a blackened crisp. Smoke came out from inside of the robot. Its lasers had stopped, and it was no longer moving at all. He turned to Erin. "You okay?"
Erin opened her eyes, both of her hands gripping tightly on the control room railing, and then saw the immobile robot on the display. She paused for a minute, wondering what came next.
"Is it dead?"
David took the control stick and tried to push Jet Twin to see if it would move. He did this several times, and each time the other robot didn't respond.
"Hey, check the neutrino scanner, will you? Is the reactor still working?" Erin went to her control panel and found the sensor, and then took a read of what JA was picking up from Jet Twin's nuclear reactor energy. The neutrino sensor had fallen down to a minimal level of activity. Like about 10 or less, really low compared to a minute ago."
"No spikes?"
"No, looks like it went to sleep," she said.
"Probably the reactor did a SCRAM. Keeps it from melting down."
"So, what are you saying? Did we get it?"
Zummy looked at the monitor again at the now inactive giant robot that only a minute earlier was trying to kill the both of them. "Um," he let out a large breath and then started to giggle. "I think we did."
"Oh my God!" Erin squealed and then immediately bounded over to Zummy. She threw her arms around him and squeezed him tight as they both laughed. "Oh my God, I don't believe we pulled that off!"
"We did it!"
"No, you did it!"
"We did it," Zummy replied to Erin, smiling through the faceplate of his radiation suit. Erin didn't say anything further, she was simply just too happy to have made it this far. Instead she embraced the boy again, holding him tight.
"Well, that's that," said David.
"Oh, wait a minute," Erin realized. "What about Shinji?"
On the other side of the mountain, Unit 01 again faced off with the Harpy as both maneuvered for an advantage on each other. Just meters away from him, the white giant opened up its large mouth and howled with a blood-curdling scream, it's large tongue flaying as it salivated.
Shinji saw the monster on his display and decided that this was just plain enough trouble for him. Honestly I am so tired of all of this already. He concentrated his thoughts tightly and focused them on the EVA's core.
Mother, this may be the last time we're ever together in here. But I've got a life now, a real one, and I want to go back to it. I want to move on and move forward. Please, help me this one last time. Please, wake up.
He then let his anxiety drop. He felt exhausted and he wanted to end this once and for all. He thought about Asuka, and Rei, and Misato, and all of the others that were behind him, the people in his life that he was connected to. He didn't want monsters like the one in front of him as part of that life anymore. It was time to end this all for good.
He let loose a battle cry and the EVA matched up with a cry of its own as she howled with an eerie echoing shout. The force of the cry was strong enough to push even the storm clouds away from where they stood and suddenly there was an opening in the thunderclouds. Shinji felt a charge up and down his body, the energy from the EVA had suddenly surged and he could feel himself tingle with the effects of it. Focusing on the enemy in front, he readied his weapons, the spear in the EVA's right hand and a progressive knife in the left, and then gave one more battle cry, one that was loud and clear and could be heard by everything and everything on the mountain. Then he launched upon the Harpy with all of his strength.
The white giant leapt up to meet the flying Unit 01 but the force of Shinji's EVA was too much this time for the Harpy. Something had changed within the EVA and she ferociously tore at the Harpy with her mouth while it fell back and tried to repel the attacks. Eva-01 tore at the Harpy with both lance and knives, making parry after parry and shredding flesh and bone in a vicious maneuver. Red blood sprayed out in all directions as Unit 01 used it's progressive knife to slice off the Harpy's right arm above the elbow. The Harpy screamed out in pain but Unit 01 continued the attack, striking again and again, and finally pushing the white monster on its back. Shinji screamed again and then plunged the Progressive knife directly into the throat of the Harpy. Red blood splashed onto Unit 01 in a gusher that colored the EVA with crimson all over it.
"I…" Shinji said out loud, as he let go of the progressive knife and grabbed the Lance with both hands.
"…am…" He tightened his grip and drew the weapon back as EVA-01 knelt on top of the fallen Harpy.
"...so sick…" With one strong stroke he took all of his strength and pushed the lance directly into its chest.
"…OF YOU!" Shinji pushed and pushed and thrust the spear as deep as he could, screaming as he did so. The Harpy howled in its own pain as the lance crushed deep into it. Then there was a loud crack and a gusher of red that came out like a geyser from the center of the stricken EVA, and then there was an explosion that came from inside the Harpy itself. Shinji felt the energy buffer his unit as it shook violently. The light was blinding for a moment and he fell back into the throne inside of the entry plug. He closed his eyes and wondered if this really was the end.
In the back of his mind the light bleached out everything and all of this thoughts drained away. The only thing left was himself, and he looked up, and there was a figure reaching out for him with her hands.
She picked him up, and she held him tightly. In that small moment he felt warm. He felt safe. He felt loved. He saw her smile. And then he knew it was over.
Goodbye, mother. Thank you.
The white light dissipated, and he was back on the control throne. There was no noise except for the ambient soft noise of the entry plug. Shinji opened his eyes and saw the display. What remained of the Harpy was spread on the ground in front of him, a giant gap through its abdomen where its core had been destroyed. The white monster was covered in blood, silent and still on the mountaintop, and Unit 01 was on top of him.
It's done.
"EVA-01?, EVA-01?" Misato's voice called on the audio. "Shinji, do you read me?"
"I'm here!" Shinji called out.
"Shinji," said Mistato, her voice now more soft. "Shinji, are you alright?"
"Yeah," he told her. "Yeah, I'm alright. All finished here." For the last time.
Mari had managed to take on three groups of attackers with the same result: a well-placed grenade followed by her expert melee attacks left all comers beaten on the ground. But the battle raged on all around her and in another opening a new squad of three soldiers came at her from different sides. For this new group, she managed a violent swing of her steel fighting rod to knock one soldier to the ground, but another got an advantage and quickly swiped his machete. Mari suddenly found her left hand was missing.
"Oh, dear," she said calmly, as two soldiers in green camouflage grinned at her, weapons at the ready.
"Well, that won't do." She looked at her wrist and moved it, and inside of her wrist a steel barrel came out about two inches. Grinning back at the soldiers, she aimed her wrist and fired. Two 12-gague shotgun blasts roared out of her left wrist at close range. One hit a soldier in the face, and he went down in a red cloud of blood. The other hit the solider in the right arm and his appendage was suddenly bright red. Mari quickly stood over him and swung her steel rod in her right hand at his head, knocking him out.
Another group of cultists rushed towards her and Mari again raised her wrist and fired three more shells, taking down the entire group. She swiveled around and found another group of five men, all with axes in their hands, and one of them reached above to swing at Mari. He went down in a bloody mess, along with the other four. Mari swung around to behind her, as she knew she hadn't done the job herself. A few feet behind her was Asuka, her face was black with smoke marks and she held her MP-7 at the ready. Mari was a bit embarrassed at being caught off guard.
Without saying anything, Mari sluffed off her white robe and revealed the rest of her body, as she had worn a tight pink-colored bra top along with black running tights underneath. Her left arm had suffered wounds during the battle but there were no marks of blood or tissue. Instead machine parts protruded at places alongside her arm. Along both of her legs also there were parts where metal or plastic jutted out of the tights where she had been hit by enemy fire. There was blood from her face however, streaming down the right side from a wound along the side of her head. Mari simply smiled at Asuka as the other girl looked at her. All around them were the sounds of battle as Alliance troops fanned out and started to engage the cult's remaining fighters.
"I've suppose you've found me out," she finally said.
Asuka tilted her head. "How much of you is still real?"
"Not nearly enough," Mari confided. A squad of Alliance marines quickly stopped by the two, then after realizing they were friendly moved onto their next target in a rush. Asuka lowered her submachine gun further as Mari grabbed her fighting rod and spun it once before retracting it.
"After what happened in that business with Unit 06, they put me back together," Mari explained. "But it wasn't quite enough. I could walk, but just barely. I was alive, I suppose I should have been grateful for that much."
"But I got a chance to change all of that, to sort of get back to my old self," she continued. "And then some. Worked quite well." She looked around at her body, and then raised her wrist to see the weapon embedded inside. "Did a wonderful job with my skin, too. But to get this way I had to give up a few things."
Asuka realized what she meant. "You're not a woman anymore," she concluded.
For once Mari was somber. "Very true, darling." She then smiled in a broken way at Asuka. "Think of it this way: while the rest of you all get the life you wanted at the end, I get to go out and defend all of that for you. Seems a small price to pay, really."
For once the redhead was silenced. She had come for Mari in order to return a debt, to when her and Patrick had intervened and saved her from what had been certain death at the battle of the GeoFront three years earlier. But now she realized that Mari was beyond saving in return. The girl had given EVA her all, more than anyone else except perhaps Shinji himself, and it had scarred her for life. Asuka had been given a future, but it had come at a price for someone else to pay instead.
Asuka approached her and removed her body armor as she walked towards her, then removed the top of her combat fatigues, and spread it over Mari's shoulders. She looked in the other girl's blue eyes and there was a moment of understanding between them, an unspoken bond that had been there all along.
"Let me get you fixed up, idiot," she told her as she dragged Mari by her remaining good wrist towards the escape cave, now controlled by Alliance soldiers. "Next time don't be so stupidly reckless."
"Sure, but do me a favor?"
"What is it?"
"Don't tell anyone about my big secret, especially the twins. I think they'd feel horrible about it."
"Fine. Whatever," said Asuka and she continued to bring Mari along with her to find help.
The man that the cult knew as the High Priest was now moving through the forest that was downhill from the volcano lair where he used to keep court. For him running away from Alliance pursuers was becoming all too common of an occurrence, having done it once immediately after SEELE's failed attempt at Third Impact, once again as the Alliance had assaulted the SEELE-2 mountain base in Norway, and now here at Mount Aso. Still, the man thought, if he was anything he was a survivor and at this point he was still alive.
The High Priest had ditched his robes once he knew the assault on cult's lair would succeed, and he had prepared well for such an eventuality. A quick change of clothes and a getaway bag hidden in a small shack at the edge of the volcano's interior had given him a dramatically difference appearance, one that resembled the Alliance's own troopers. As the man was European and not even Japanese in the first place, wearing a camouflage uniform with high officer rank would be enough to escape casual scrutiny from Alliance soldiers in the heat of battle, and were he stopped he had properly forged identification if needed. If that was unsuccessful he also had a concealed pistol.
But he had avoided capture yet again, and had used an escape tunnel unknown to the cult to find his way out of the volcano and to the forest aside the mountain. Now he was darting from tree to tree, trying to make as much distance on foot from the site of the battle as he could. From the point in the forest he was now, he calculated the distance to the main Mount Aso shrine road was at most three kilometers. In another hour he'd be there and then he'd attempt to flag down a vehicle using his disguise.
As he plunged through the forest the man, known to most within SEELE itself as the Frenchman, pondered if he had perhaps made a mistake with the creation of the Lilith Cult. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, given that photos of the Giant of Light had been circulating worldwide via the internet not long after the battle at Tokyo-3 with NERV and the Alliance. To him, in a brave new and rapidly changing world mankind was hungry for familiarity, and what was more familiar to men than worshiping idols.
With or without him, he knew the cult would go on. It was a grand idea and such ideas are hard to stop once planted in fertile ground within men's minds. But his path now needed to go a different way.
As long as I still breathe we can try again, he thought. Men still want power and I can give it to them with the things I know about EVA and the full reality of mankind's existence. I simply need to reach safety and then at the right time we foray again. He did have to admit that the Alliance seemed to have a very competent knack for disruption.
In front of him he saw through the forest the edge of a small road. Another kilometer or two to go and we'll be free again. He looked behind him and saw no pursuers, no soldiers of the Alliance or stragglers from the cult had followed him this far. He still heard the footsteps of Unit 01 in the distance and also perhaps that of Jet Alone. Damned robot, should not have left it intact with NERV. It was perhaps hoping too much they wouldn't find a way to turn it against us.
He made towards the road, picking up his pace this time. It wouldn't take long now, he knew. Just another bit of marching through the forest and…
"That uniform doesn't suit you very well, does it?" The Frenchman turned around and again looked behind him. A single man was standing in the forest dressed in an olive flight suit. He stood about twenty feet away, and held a pistol at him.
The Frenchman's heart sank. It was Ryouji Kaji.
He stopped moving towards the road and faced his pursuer. "Damn it all," he growled. "It would be you, wouldn't it?"
Kaji slowly walked towards him, pistol still aimed at his chest. "I haven't been through all of my nine lives yet," he said. "I believe the same is not true for you."
The Frenchmen turned and looked towards the road, not seeing anyone else besides the two of them. Did he dare try and run? But if Kaji had him cornered here in the forest already there was almost certainly a box already being drawn up by his operatives to contain him. He was most surely trapped.
Resigned, the man faced Kaji again, who now stood perhaps two meters away. "Well, you have your quarry now. What will you do with me? Put on a little show trial to display your goodness to all the world? Or just toss me in some dungeon to entertain yourself with my confinement?"
"You're not considering something else," Kaji replied. "You're simply assuming you're too valuable not to keep on hand, aren't you?"
"Well, knowledge IS power," the Frenchman told him. "And I certainly have that. What old Kiel knew I knew as well. It was me that was beside him all these years, putting this all together. It was I who made sure there would always be a remnant of what we did. And," the man said as he took a step closer to Kaji, "It is I that can give you the answers you seek. The real answers. What we were doing, how we did it, where it all came from. Over ten thousand years of knowledge of man's place in the universe. All at your disposal."
"All for a price," said Kaji.
"In the scheme of things I'm not asking for much," said the Frenchman. "I get a chance to live. While you get the answers about us that no one else can give you. A reasonable exchange."
"Perhaps," said Kaji with a small smile. "Unfortunately, I've already been bought and by someone with something much better than you could ever give." He cocked the pistol hammer. "There will be no deals today."
In the Frenchman's expression there was a change. His eyes looked darker now, his face became sullen. The man's shoulders tightened with fear. The realization reached him that this time he would not escape.
He thought to go out in a blaze, going for the pistol hidden in his jacket. But he knew that he was already at a disadvantage against Kaji. Such an action would only hasten the now inevitable.
Now without escape, the man growled at his captor. "Damn you!" he snarled. "Damn you and your army of children to hell!"
Kaji didn't waste any further words on him. He pulled the trigger. The first bullet pierced his chest. The man's eyes trembled with the realization that it really was over for him. Then Kaji pulled the trigger again, this time making his mark on the man's forehead. It exploded in a bloody mess and the Frenchman went down to the ground.
Stepping over the body, Kaji examined him carefully to be sure he was never getting back up again. He then picked up his phone and made a call. It ran just once and answered.
"It's done," he said.
"Then let's go home," came Misato's voice.
That was a difficult chapter to write but perhaps the most important one. The process took a while as it's several different POVs that have to be threaded together but hopefully everything came off well and we get an exciting conclusion. Thanks to everyone for hanging around this far.
I expect we're about three chapters left to go as we move on to how everything settles. Some great moments left to come so stay tuned!