Chapter 21: Stinger

And though they did hurt me so bad

In the fear and alarm

You did not desert me

My brothers in arms

-Mark Knopfler

"You ready, sir?"

Taking a deep breath of the oxygen in his pressure suit, Bishop nodded and flashed a thumbs up to the tech manning the catapult controls as he closed the canopy. His ingenious ground crew had managed to rig a crude timer to the firing control, which would launch him and his aircraft off into the wild blue yonder exactly sixty seconds after it was activated, ensuring nobody had to be in the cavern while he started up.

One minute to start the engines and wind them up to takeoff power. It flew in the face of all his training to push the turbofans so hard without giving them time to properly warm up, but he would be launched whether he was ready or not, and if he wasn't at full afterburner it would be a mighty short flight.

Acknowledging his signal, the tech counted down from five using hand gestures, before hitting a switch to activate the timer.

"Good luck sir!" he called over his shoulder, already sprinting towards the exit as Bishop began the rushed startup.

Battery on. Generator on. He ran through the checklist in his head, hands acting on pure muscle memory. Throttles idle cut off. Engine one master switch on. Cartridge one… Now for the moment of truth, he flicked open a red protective cover near his left elbow and pressed the button underneath. Fire.

BANG.

It sounded like a gunshot coming from directly behind him, followed by a whoosh and a slow whine as the engine was violently forced to spool up. From outside, the big fighter seemed to snort like an angry bull as the spent gas from the cartridge was vented.

Watching the RPM gauge quickly rise, the pilot slowly and carefully advanced the throttle forward, gently feeding fuel to the engine. Starting with the cartridges required a delicate touch, as introducing too much fuel too quickly could easily start a fire. His heart leapt into his throat as the whine ascended to a roar, a jet of orange flame from the tailpipes lighting the darkened tunnel as the engine came to life.

No time to time to celebrate, less than thirty seconds left. He repeated the process with engine two, breathing a silent prayer of thanks as it too caught without issue. 302 wanted to fly and fight just as badly as he did. He could feel it in the eager vibrations of the old bird's airframe, in the way she hunched in anticipation as he lit the afterburners.

It wasn't a moment too soon. He'd lost track of time, and the sudden jolt forward caught him by surprise.

No way that was a full minute, he thought sourly, bracing against the brutal acceleration that slammed his head back against the seat.

Not fast enough. He realized about halfway down the track that it wasn't going to make it up to takeoff speed, and he had less than the blink of an eye to react when he was shot out over the mountainside, the stall warning blaring in his ear as the aircraft immediately began to lose altitude.

Gear up. Flaps up. He needed speed and he needed it now. Job number one was to eliminate any unnecessary drag, his left hand instantly reaching for the switches. Still losing altitude, and with the controls sluggish and sloppy, he eased the nose down into a dive. He was parallel to the face of the mountain now, with lake Ashi rushing up towards him. The airspeed needle began to climb, just enough that he was able to recover control an instant before he would have been dead, levelling off the skim just above the lake's surface for a joyous moment.

The jet threw up a mighty wall of spray behind it as it gathered speed, streaking towards the opposite shore just a few metres above the placid water. Having cheated death once again, the pilot forgot himself and let out a whoop, reveling in the feeling. The fear was gone. The hell with his responsibilities on the ground. He wasn't going to be a helpless bystander, not this time. With wind under its wings, the avenger now jumped to respond to his inputs as he pulled into a climb and turned towards the city, seeking his prey.

There it was. Just sitting there, right in the middle of the city. Circling to watch it for a moment, Bishop looked on in curious revulsion as some sort of fluid dripped from its body.

Is it wounded? He wondered if maybe the city's defenses had come back online, although the guns still appeared to be silent. Tightening his turn, he swooped in for a closer look, able to see the pavement below the thing sputter and sizzle as the goo made contact. He quickly concluded that it was using some sort of acid to melt its way down to headquarters.

Might take a while, pal. He could think of more efficient means of breaching the Geofront's immensely thick armour, but he wasn't here to criticize. He was here to kill.

In addition to the dart, his aircraft carried a full load of NERV's specialized armour-piercing ammunition, and he decided to give it a try before climbing to altitude for a full attack, activating the guns and pulling the nose around to line up for a strafing run.

The first burst of 30mm fell short, leaving a cluster of smoldering craters in the asphalt just in front of the thing's central capsule. He quickly adjusted the sight, and tightened his finger around the trigger once more.

BRRRRRRRRRRRTTT

The three-second burst sent 200 rounds downrange with a deep rumbling growl, the sound echoing through the empty streets below with a flash of smoke and flame. He held down the trigger until he nearly collided with the angel's legs, rolling ninety degrees to dart between a pair of skyscrapers before pulling up and away. Once clear, he craned his neck to look behind, trying to see the effect on target.

He muttered a curse at what he saw. If anything, he seemed to have made things worse. Most if not all the rounds had hit; the thing seemed to have made no attempt to raise an AT field, and its body was riddled with holes. Instead of slowing the chemical assault, however, it was only intensified as each new hole began to leak more of the orange acid.

He briefly considered turning around to unload the rest of the ammunition, but instead deemed it to be a waste of time, continuing the steep climb away. The angel was a perfect target for a dart shot sitting right where it was, and he needed to get up to altitude before it moved.

"…All -tations, all stat-….. - stations…"

Asuka frowned at the crackle of radio static in unit-02's cockpit. The comm circuit seemed to have picked up a faint transmission.

"…Object… -entre of Tokyo thr- … Attacking… Remain well cl-" The voice, though fuzzy, sounded vaguely familiar.

"Did you guys hear that?" she asked her fellow pilots as the three Eva units made their way through a massive ventilation shaft, ignominiously crawling on all fours in a manner far beneath her and unit-02's dignity.

"No…"

"Negative."

"Hm. Never mind" It faded after a moment, and with a shrug she put it out of her mind. Probably just an evacuation message for the civilians. She was no civilian, she thought with a confident smirk. She was crawling towards danger, not away from it.

Listening for an answer to his last transmission, Bishop gave an annoyed grunt when none came and switched the radio to another frequency. He was nearing attack altitude, and was broadcasting his intentions on any civilian or military air traffic frequencies he could think of. So far, no response on any of them. All aircraft in the area must have been grounded, he figured, and any radios in the city far below were likely dead.

"All stations, all stations, all stations," he began on the new channel. "Arrow one is preparing to attack the unidentified object in the centre of Tokyo-three. Any air traffic and anyone on the ground must remain well clear, I say again, remain well clear of downtown Tokyo-3. Does anybody copy?"

No response.

"…Well, if anyone's stupid enough to be within a mile of that thing, don't say I didn't warn you. Out."He sent one last transmission as he levelled off at 80,000 feet. No more time to screw around with the radio, there was work to be done.

Hoping his target hadn't moved in the five minutes he'd been climbing, he turned back towards the city and switched on the radar. It was a faint spike amidst all the interference from the terrain around it, but it was there by God, he thought with a grin.

You stay right there, you beauty. The system was locked on, the launch tube armed. Another moment to build up speed before rolling inverted to pull into the dive, the Avenger streaking towards the earth like an eagle with its talons outstretched as the Jericho trumpet wailed its unearthly battle cry.

The air was rough today, and got rougher still the closer he got to his target. Past 50,000 feet, and the old girl felt like she was ready to rip herself apart, but she held together as he knew she would.

It was a perfect shot if ever there was one. He was completely vertical, directly above the target. The computer loosed the dart with a BANG just as he passed 45,000 feet, giving him plenty of room to slow down and execute a relatively gentle pull-out.

He would have circle back around to inspect his handiwork, but he knew in his gut that he'd scored a kill. It was good feeling, and he hated himself for enjoying it so much.

"Asuka, I really don't mind being the cover. You and Rei are both better shots than me anyways, and it'll be dangerous…"

"Nuh-uh." Asuka said in a sing-song voice, making Shinji's brow furrow in irritation. "I'm sick and tired of having to watch you play the hero. It's my turn."

The three Eva pilots were on their own. No direction from Miss Misato, who was still missing when they left the Eva cage, their only order to kill the angel by any means necessary. That left it up to them to figure out their tactics. Their first attempt to engage the enemy had failed miserably, the acid dripping down the ventilation shaft forcing them to drop their pallet rifles and seek cover in an alcove.

Asuka had predictably taken charge, though Shinji couldn't find much fault in her plan. She seemed to have remembered the basic infantry tactics the Major had taught them, particularly on defending a position.

Always fire from cover, and never fire from the same piece of cover twice if you can help it, he'd said. Even a few handfuls of scraped-up dirt can stop a bullet.

Simple and fairly obvious advice he'd thought at the time, but advice they'd now paid the price for failing to heed. They needed some sort of cover to engage the enemy from behind, and with none to be had on their chosen battlefield, they would make their own. One Eva would stretch itself across the width of the shaft, catching as much of the acid as it could and shield the other two as they retrieved their rifles from the bottom.

The Eva who would take the defensive position would be subject to the full brunt of the Angel's assault. The boy recalled the searing pain of just a few drops of the acid hitting unit-01's armour, but as awful as it would be, the thought of Asuka experiencing it in his place left a sinking feeling of worry in his chest that was far worse.

"Asuka, please..." He pleaded with her, but the red mech vehemently shook its head.

"Sorry third child. I still owe you one, and I'm doing it. That's final."

"B-but..."

"Three minutes of battery life remaining." Rei interjected, her way of telling them to shut up and focus on the task at hand. With a brief nod, Shinji acquiesced.

"Fine..." he said. "Don't worry. We'll be quick."

"I'm not. And you'd better be." With that, Asuka turned towards the shaft and poked unit-02's head out, looking up at the distant enemy. "...Alright it's now or never. You two ready?"

"Ready." He and Rei answered simultaneously.

"Okay... Go!"

Rei went first, unit-00 sliding gracefully down the shaft into the inky blackness below. Shinji was in position to follow, when something in his mind suddenly screamed a warning at him.

"Wh- Hey!" Asuka shouted indignantly from behind him as he instinctively flattened unit-01 back into the alcove, a blink of an eye before the shaft filled with a blinding flash of light. Shinji felt as though the air all around him was being ripped apart as something moving impossibly fast shot past him on its way down the shaft. Whatever it was, it missed him by mere inches. The Eva's armour was scorched by a brief flash of immense heat as the object passed by, but other than that he seemed to be alright, letting out a relieved breath.

"What was that?! Rei, are you okay?" He leaned out into the shaft and looked down, hoping unit-00 had been out of the way of the thing.

"I believe… Our mission is accomplished." Rei's voice came as an immense relief to Shinji a moment later.

"Y-yeah, I guess so…"

"Whaddya mean? What happened? Get out of the way, idiot, I can't see!" Asuka, behind him in the alcove, bodily shoved unit-01 out into the shaft, Shinji managing to cling to the wall with an annoyed shout.

The red mech's head poked out and looked up. "…Where'd the angel go?"

"It is either dead or has moved somewhere else." Unit-00 reappeared out of the gloom, Rei skillfully climbing up the smooth walls before stopping to point straight upwards. Sunlight was now distantly visible where before the Angel's body had blocked it.

"…Well that's not fair!" Asuka was indignant. "Who did that? Did they know we were down here? They could have killed us!" The red mech looked upward, before abruptly starting to climb up the shaft towards the surface.

"Asuka, where are you going?" Shinji asked as unit-02 ascended away from him.

"Where do you think, genius? We still have two minutes of battery left, and I'm going to go see what happened to the angel and give whoever fired that shot a piece of my mind!"

"I-I don't think that's such a good idea…"

"Hmph. Well if you'd rather wait down here in the dark until your Eva's battery runs dead, be my guest."

Shinji sighed, knowing she was right. It was a long crawl back to the Eva cages, and he didn't fancy the idea of being trapped in some dark tunnel if the battery ran dry before he got there. The three Evas climbed together with Unit-02 leading them, emerging from the scorched hole in the street a few moments later to find a deserted city.

The angel was indeed dead, or at least he was pretty sure it was. It's ovular body lay on the ground beside the shaft with its legs splayed out at awkward angles, a huge hole torn through the centre that still leaked acid.

The ground near where the angel had been standing was covered with a fine snow of shattered glass. Looking up, Shinji saw that every single window on the nearby buildings and abandoned cars had been blown out, likely by the shock wave from the projectile that killed the angel. It was then that the trio heard the roar of a jet engine, and simultaneously looked up to see a delta winged fighter pass low over the city, performing a triumphant barrel roll.

"Alpha team, this is overwatch, report in."

On an empty stretch of a narrow mountain road overlooking Tokyo-3 from the west, five men dressed in black tactical gear stood beside an unmarked black Humvee, surveying the city before them. Their faces were covered with ski-masks, and their clothes and equipment bore no insignia. Their commander was talking into a handheld radio, while three others stood guard with rifles at the ready. The fifth stood beside the leader with his eyes turned skywards, a stinger shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile launcher resting on his shoulder.

The leader scowled at the moment of silence following his transmission before the radio finally crackled to life.

"This is alpha actual, send traffic." The leader of the team charged with infiltrating NERV headquarters finally deigned to answer his superior.

"Report your status, alpha actual." The black clad figure was getting antsy. NERV's normally formidable surveillance systems were offline, the only reason the heavily armed team had been able to penetrate this far, but it was still only a matter of time before they were discovered and had to shoot their way out.

"Uh, roger overwatch, sabotage of the reactor was successful, and we've secured the intel the bosses wanted."

"Good. Any witnesses?"

"None left alive."

"Excellent. What's your ETA to the rendezvous point? We're waiting for you, but we can't stay here forever."

An alarmed shout could be heard in the background as Alpha actual keyed the mic to respond, followed by the unmistakable sound of suppressed gunfire. After a brief pause, the man's voice came back, sounding just as calm as before. "Unknown on the ETA, overwatch, security's starting to wake up down here, and they might have geofront access sealed. We have other ways out, but it might take awhile."

"Hm." The commander looked out over the city with an annoyed grunt. "We'll wait as long as we can, but no guarantees if you fall too far behind schedule. And I don't need to remind you that you are to avoid capture by any means necessary." Each of them carried a cyanide capsule. Their employers paid very well, and had very long arms. Their lives along with the lives of their families would all be forfeit if any of them were taken alive to be interrogated.

"Understood overwatch, alpha out."

Letting out a long breath, the man turned and paced the road, looking anxiously back out at the city. His eyes fixed on the strange giant creature standing in the middle of it, before nearly being blinded by a sudden flash of light that seemed to come from straight above and pierce the thing cleanly through the middle.

So, they managed to kill it somehow. None of his concern; the thing showing up had been a fortunate coincidence for him, ensuring that the team in the geofront was able to slip in and do their work while NERV's attention was distracted elsewhere. His team had already completed their mission of sabotaging the surface power infrastructure, the only hiccup being a single fighter jet that had briefly appeared overhead to attack the giant bug with gunfire before climbing away somewhere to the south. They came prepared knowing that NERV possessed air assets, hence the man watching the sky with the shoulder-fired SAM.

Speak of the devil, he thought with a frown as the team looked up at the sound of a jet engine.

"Looks like that fast mover's back, boss." The SAM operator hefted his weapon and pointed it up at the dark shape silhouetted against the sun. As the fighter pulled out of a steep dive and levelled off over the city, the missile launcher emitted a loud beeping tone. "Got a solid lock. Want it gone?"

He didn't answer right away, considering his options. The jet didn't leave this time, but loitered over the city, passing almost straight above them.

Is it looking for us? If it was, it wouldn't take long to find them here, and if the missile missed the smoke trail would lead it straight back to their position.

Weighing the risks, he quickly came to a decision. He well remembered the sound of those cannons firing.

"Shoot it down."

"…So, it was one of those stupid flyboys, huh? Well they're gonna be in a whole lotta trouble when I tell Misato about this."

Shinji rolled his eyes, knowing full well that Asuka was only mad at losing her chance to be the hero. "C'mon, I'm sure they had no idea…"

The boy trailed off as a tone suddenly sounded in his ear from the Eva's system.

WARNING. MISSILE LAUNCH DETECTED. SOURCE UNKNOWN.

The text flashed in red across the bottom of the head-up display, while overhead a red box appeared at the head of a thin white smoke trail streaking across the sky. Straight towards the jet. The Aircraft made no attempt to evade until it was far too late, the crack of the explosion echoing through the city as the fighter instantly began to cough out a trail of dirty black smoke. As it gracefully arced towards the earth, Shinji noted with a knot of concern in his stomach that the pilot had not ejected, but rather was still trying to control the doomed aircraft. It lurched into a left turn to try and aim for a grass field at the edge of the city, one of the few spots of open ground available.

"C'mon," he said abruptly to his comrades, stricken by a sudden need to act. "The pilot's going to try to land over there. I-if they're hurt, they'll need help."

"I-" Asuka seemed about to object, but stopped as all three watched the plane make a final valiant effort to stay airborne, before settling heavily down onto the field. They couldn't see what happened next, but they all saw the plume of smoke that resulted. "…Okay. Wondergirl, you head to the hospital and get them to send an ambulance to the crash site. We'll go see if there's anything left to save."

"Right." Rei responded curtly as unit-00 set off towards Tokyo-3 general hospital. It was a smart move, all three were down to their last minute of battery, and the hospital was all the way on the other end of the city. With the power still down, there'd be no way of calling for an ambulance once they were there.

The pair of Evas quickly set off towards the rising pall of smoke. Shinji was far more terrified of what they might find there than he had been by the angel. It only took a moment to reach the field, where they found a trail of burning jet fuel and torn-up earth leading to the edge of the forest that surrounded the city.

The aircraft itself was in several pieces. It seemed to have skidded as it slid across the field and slammed into the treeline sideways. The nose section was wrapped partway around a tree and still more or less intact, with the remains of a wing and one of the engines scattered around it. The rest was presumably burning further back in the woods, where the smoke was coming from.

As the two mechs stomped across the field towards the wreckage, Shinji saw a flicker of movement from the cockpit, and quickened unit-01's pace toward it. The pilot was still alive. Bending the Eva down to look closer, his gut wrenched when he recognized the major. He seemed to be unconscious, the man's head lolling lazily back and forth, his eyes closed. His nose was broken, his face covered in blood.

"Well, what's the plan, third child?" Asuka's voice interrupted his thoughts on just that matter.

"I… I-I dunno," he admitted. "M-maybe we can get him out and carry him to the hospital…"

"Don't think so. We've got less than thirty seconds of battery left, we'd never make it in time, and trying to pull him out of there with the Eva's hands would probably kill him."

Shinji felt utterly helpless. This man who had done so much for him needed his help, and there was nothing he could do. He was utterly paralyzed by frustration for a moment, but luckily Asuka managed to keep her head.

"…I think it's best we eject and go on foot. We can get him out of there together and wait for the ambulance."

The boy nodded, pulling the handle almost without thinking. He was shot backwards and scrambled down the ladder to the ground without giving the dizzying height a second thought, and before he knew it he was sprinting across the fuel-soaked ground, the fumes making his head spin. He arrived beside the jet's nose a moment before Asuka. It had impacted the tree just ahead of the cockpit, which was still covered by the canopy.

"How do we get this open?!" He shouted as he banged his fist fruitlessly on the plexiglass, while Asuka read the various warning stencils on the metal below it.

"Here!" She said after a moment, referring to a large yellow arrow that said 'RESCUE'. "It says to open this and push the button inside. Step back!" She commanded as she followed the instructions to open the panel and mashed the black-and-yellow striped button she found inside. Both the Eva pilots jumped backwards at the ear-splitting BANG that followed as a set of explosive bolts blew the canopy clear.

The noise seemed to have roused the major, whose eyes flitted open to rest on the pair as they rushed back over to peer into the cockpit.

"…Kids?"

It took a moment for Bishop to recognize the two blurry shapes staring down at him. His head was swimming, everything seeming to move in slow motion, and he felt incredibly weary and weak. He didn't think he could lift his head if he tried. He took a breath, and winced at the sharp pain in his chest that followed.

Where the hell am I?

As his vision slowly cleared, it began to come back to him in pieces. The elation at seeing the Angel's stricken corpse below him. The strange sight of the Evas crawling out of the hole in the ground. A flash of movement in the mirror, quickly followed by an explosion somewhere behind him. Both engines on fire, flight controls gone. Pulling the handle to eject, nothing. Spotting the grassy park, wrenching the nose around to aim for it and hoping for the best. Remembering to depressurize his suit and lift his helmet's visor; being blinded by shattered glass would be a fate worse than death. Slamming on to the field, feeling his nose smash against the inside of the helmet, his ribs crack as the harness tightened, then the treeline rushing towards him, and now…

The smell of jet fuel was so strong as to overpower the blood filling his broken nose.

"Kids…" It took all his remaining strength to speak. "…Get out of here. This whole place could go up any second now…"

"B-but sir, we can't leave you." He was touched by the obvious concern in the boy's voice, but he stubbornly shook his head.

"Go. There's nothing you can do for me."

"No way." It was Asuka who argued with him this time, stubbornly crossing her arms. "After all those times you yelled at us to push on through the pain, now you're just gonna give up?"

The pilot couldn't help but chuckle despite everything. "It's not quite the same thing, Soryu. It's not up to me anymore." He managed to lift his head a little to look down. The footwells where his feet had been resting on the rudder pedals had been crushed by the impact with the tree, along with his legs. The floor was awash with blood.

Well, that explains why I'm so tired. "…My legs are caught and I'm bleeding out, I'm-"

"Nuh-uh, you're coming with us." Asuka sounded utterly confident as she ordered Shinji to take position on the other side of the cockpit. They undid his seat harness, and then both grabbed an arm and started to try and lift.

"Wait a minute, I-I don't think you two are strong enough t- AH!" He gave a throttled yelp as the pair of teenagers managed to lift his torso a bit, which elicited a jolt of pain from his mangled legs so intense that he lost consciousness for a moment.

"Please… don't do that again," he begged when came to. Every breath now was becoming an effort, his extremities cold despite the oppressive heat all around. "Just…" He sighed wearily and leaned his head back against the seat, closing his eyes. "…I'm tired, kids. Just let me rest."

"No!" Shinji's defiant voice briefly brought him around again. To his surprise, he thought he saw tears welling up in the boy's eyes. "I-if you fall asleep, you'll die! You have to stay awake! There's an ambulance coming!"

"I..." He was about to explain that he was pretty sure he was going to die here whether he let himself rest or not, that dealing with death was part of a soldier's job, and that the young Eva pilots had better get used to the idea. Looking into Shinji's eyes, though, he couldn't do it. He still owed that boy an awful lot, and it occurred to him with a pang of regret that despite all his bluster about not wanting to get too close to them, the kids were the only ones by his side at the end.

He looks up to you. You know he does.

So he simply nodded and put on a brave face, for their sake. He saw that it would hurt them to have to watch him die, and with that in mind he resolved to hold on until the ambulance arrived. After all, an officer of the King ought to keep a stiff upper lip in front of the troops, and he supposed Asuka was right as well; what kind of example would be setting for them if he simply closed his eyes and went quietly. That was no way for a warrior to die.

"Right." He mustered his strength to speak, fighting the overwhelming urge to shut his eyes as the life slowly left him. "...Well don't just stand there you two. Talk to me, keep me awake. What happened, how did you wind up out here?"

He focused as hard as he could on Asuka as she briefly related the story before launching into a tirade about how he nearly killed them with his dart shot. He tried to apologize, but he couldn't get a word in edgewise.

"...I guess I can let it slide, though, seeing as that stupid missile got to you before I could," she concluded with a small smile.

"Hold on a sec." He finally managed to speak. "...Whaddya mean missile?"

"T-the missile that shot you down, sir. Didn't you see it?" Shinji asked, incredulous.

Bishop shook his head. "I saw... something in the rearview mirror. Did you see who fired it?"

"Nope." Asuka answered, cocking an amused eyebrow. "...Some ace you are, getting shot down by a missile you didn't even see coming."

"Careful, young lady." He couldn't help but return her smirk. He couldn't tell if she genuinely found the whole thing funny, or was just trying to lighten the mood. In either case, he couldn't help but like her all the more for it. "...My arms still work, and I'm not above hitting a little girl."

"Ha! Just try it, old man. I'll make you wish-"

"Asuka!" Shinji cut his counterpart off with a shocked expression.

"It's okay kid. Just a little gallows humor." He paused for breath, wincing at the shiver that coursed through him. He hadn't felt this cold since the winters back home before second impact. It meant he didn't have much time left. "...Must have been a heat-seaker, I would have got a warning if it was radar-guided. Probably shoulder-fired, too, anything heavier and there wouldn't be anything left of me. Means whoever fired it was somewhere in or around the city, those things only have a range of a few kilometres."

"B-but who in the city would do that?"

"Dunno kid. Hardly matters anymore, does it?" He gently shook his head, feeling the last of his strength fading.

"Hardly matters!? Someone was trying to kill you, don't you want to know who?" Asuka asked. "Don't you want revenge?"

"Revenge?" He gave a weak chuckle. "Look at me, Soryu. I'll be a cripple even if I make it out of this alive, I think my revenging days are over. It's a fool's errand, anyways, always was. If nothing else I taught you, I want you to remember that. Killing just for the sake of it never did me or anybody else any good."

He could hear a siren approaching now, shortly followed by the sound of tires bumping across the grass towards them. He just had to hold on a little longer, and he could finally rest.

"Over here!" He could hear Shinji desperately shouting as the boy turned away from him and waved his arms over his head. The siren got louder still before suddenly stopping, and moments later the unfamiliar face of a paramedic appeared beside the kid over the rim of the cockpit.

"Oh... Wow." The young man shook his head as he took a closer look at Bishop's legs. "...You're all kinds of messed up, mister."

"...No shit. You gonna get me out of here or not?"

"We'll do our best, but no promises. Even if we do... Well, things aren't looking so good back at the hospital. No power and all." The man answered him bluntly as he began to hook up an I.V. "You know your blood type?"

Bishop nodded weakly. "O negative."

The paramedic winced, before shouting to his partner. "How many units of O negative we got?"

"Just one!" came the reply.

"Damn." The young man shook his head as he began to tighten a pair of tourniquets around Bishop's thighs. "You're gonna need whole blood and a lot of it. Not sure one unit's gonna cut it."

"...Quite the bedside manner you've got."

The young paramedic could only shrug. "Hey, I'm no doctor, and I won't lie to you mister. This is gonna hurt a lot, and your chances of making it to the OR are slim."

Bishop could only nod. He didn't much care any more. He saw that the kids were still staring down at him, however, and gestured to the paramedic. "Fine. Just... Get them out of here. They... shouldn't have to see this."

Caught up in his work, the man hadn't noticed the two teenagers, and nodded sharply in agreement. "He's right. You two go wait by the ambulance with your friend. She got us here just in the nick of time, and you did all you could by keeping him awake. You three are heroes, you know that?"

The young Eva pilots slowly backed away, and Bishop shot them a reassuring grin as they gave him a final wide-eyed look. "Don't worry about me. I'll see you soon. I promise" he managed to utter just before he closed his eyes.

He'd made the same promise once before to someone very dear to him, knowing now just as he did then that he wouldn't be able to keep it.